Survey Reveals Mexican Produce Exporters’ Positive Response to, Challenges Meeting FSMA Requirements
Since implementation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FDA’s FSMA) in 2011, the Mexican horticultural sector has made positive changes that have improved food safety and enabled the continued growth of Mexican produce exports to the U.S., although not without facing challenges like training. These findings are the result of a survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA’s ERS) to explore how Mexican horticultural exporters have responded to FSMA requirements.
Because Mexico’s horticultural export sector is the largest source of U.S. produce imports (63.5 percent of U.S. vegetable imports and 46.1 percent of U.S. fruit and nut imports as of 2021), Mexican exporters have significant motivation to comply with FSMA requirements and ensure their products meet U.S. food safety standards. To discover the impacts of FSMA on the Mexican horticultural sector, USDA’s ERS conducted a series of interviews between March 2018 and March 2020 with representatives of 26 produce firms that export at least one of four major produce commodities to the U.S.; specifically, tomatoes, strawberries, green onions, and cantaloupe, which were goods from Mexico associated with foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. prior to FSMA.