How have various trade agreements and other legislation affected the flow of produce from Mexico to the United States over the last decade?
McClung: There’s no end to the debates you can have in answering that, I don’t think there’s any question we’re seeing vast increases in the amount of produce coming from Latin America; in Texas alone, we have become the #3 shipper of fruits and vegetables to the entire country, but 25 years ago, those commodities were domestically produced.
Now it’s almost two-thirds Mexican produce and it is not all what you would consider tropical products—it’s things like onions and cabbage and carrots and peppers. You put this together with the classical and new tropicals, and you can see a definite shift in the acceptance of new products, as well as old products from new sources.
We’re reaching a plateau in Texas in terms of both tropicals and nontropicals, which are increasingly coming to us from Mexico. It’s produced, very often, by U.S. money; it is grown to U.S. standards; and the intent is for it all to be consumed in the United States. The cliché I have occasionally used is that we have “moved the garden across the river.”
What are some of the trends TIPA tracks for your members?
McClung: The fact of the matter is we don’t concern ourselves too much with studying day-to-day consumer trends. We take our direction largely from the retail and foodservice communities; we can see what’s happening in those sectors and it gives us a pretty clear picture of what consumers want.
We’ve been keeping an eye on citrus production throughout Texas, and have reached a pretty good understanding of how to stabilize the sector and avoid diseases like citrus greening. Which, by the way, is worth pointing out—as the produce industry globalizes, so do the bugs. They become more varied and more likely to show up in the United States as we continue to seek produce from outside our borders.
You’ve recently taken charge of the Border Issues Management Program (BIMP), what is its mission?
McClung: Anytime you have trade across an international border, issues constantly come up. There are broad public policy issues dealt with in Washington, or in our case, Austin (the state capital), like food safety laws or immigration reform. There are all sorts of technical components that go into maintaining a safe and healthy food supply, and this is a significant part of what BIMP works on.
What are some of the major issues facing TIPA members, and how is the BIMP addressing them?
McClung: We are looking, in Texas, at a surge of volume coming out of Mexico that’s going to require additional resources from the federal agencies—U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Agriculture (USDA)—and this is at a time when, as you know, the economy is in such a state that going to Washington and asking for these extra resources is a difficult assignment. But we have to do it.
