Mexico is the country’s largest source of winter fruit and vegetable imports. Last February, U.S. grocery stores imported $2.25 billion worth of fresh produce from Mexico, per federal data analyzed by the Progressive Policy Institute.
- That included 128,330 tons of peppers, 106,460 tons of avocados, and 44,440 tons of lemons and limes.
- “Grocery stores rely very heavily on Mexico for about half (their) fresh produce imports,” says Ed Gresser, vice president at the institute.
- “If you wanted to shift that to U.S. production it would be very hard. You’d have to go to a lot of greenhouses and it would be very expensive,” adds Gresser, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for policy and economics.
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