Mexico at risk of flooding of American potatoes despite phytosanitary problems

In addition to the blow that the President of the United States wants to deal by applying 25 percent  tariffs  to Mexican exports, there is a risk that the country will be flooded with American potatoes despite the phytosanitary problems that exist in that nation, warned Filiberto Cadena Payán.

The advisor of the Confederation of Potato Producers (Conpapa) in  Mexico  regretted that the borders have been opened to allow the entry of poor quality potatoes and that this represents unfair competition because they have legally demonstrated that it puts crops at risk due to the presence of pests and diseases that do not exist in the Mexican Republic.

“But now with the free trade agreement, the USMCA, there are cheap potatoes from the United States because the United States has 5 million tons to spare and we only produce 1.5 million, so they can flood us if they keep sending us cheap potatoes,” he said.

He mentioned that during this fall-winter season, the potato surface area grew from 13,000 to 17,000 hectares, due to the drought that prevented them from planting corn because it is a crop with high water demand. Now they will have to store the tuber harvest to avoid saturating the market and preventing the price from collapsing.

He acknowledged that Sinaloa has the advantage that half of its production is delivered to the industry for the production of snacks, due to the high quality they achieve, but they will still have volumes to sell for consumption by the population.

He also explained that in northern  Sinaloa  they began growing this crop 40 years ago. At that time, the most important areas where it was harvested were Bajío and the State of Mexico, but over time they have become the leaders, along with Sonora and Baja California.