Agribusiness in Latin America and the Caribbean

The production and sale of agribusiness goods across international frontiers is often more complex than it appears at first sight. A recent study by the University of Arizona, ‘Mexican Fresh Tomatoes – Agribusiness Value Chain Contributions to the US Economy’, analyses the economics of the sale of Mexican fresh tomatoes into the US. In 2016 Mexico sold 3.4bn pounds worth of fresh tomatoes into the US, for a value of US$1.9bn. By weight, 1.7bn pounds of these exports were round tomatoes, 1.5bn were plumb (Roma) tomatoes, and the remainder, 228m pounds, were cherry and grape tomatoes. More than half these tomatoes were produced using protected agriculture techniques (greenhouses), with the remainder grown in open fields. Mexico’s share of the fresh tomato market in the US has been running at 40%-50%.