Mexico Becomes A Berry Powerhouse

CIUDAD GUZMAN, Mexico • Mexico, already the world’s third-largest exporter of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, is looking for ways to get U.S. consumers to throw more fresh blueberries into the pancake batter and heap more raspberries onto their fruit salads.

As long as U.S. and other foreign consumers wolf down berries, Mexican proponents of the industry say, the surge will continue. That’s more than just an agricultural oddity in a land better-known for fields of blue-green agave and patches of cactus. The growth of the berry industry has had major consequences on regions long afflicted by high unemployment and drug-related violence.

The industry, which didn’t exist less than two decades ago, employs more than 100,000 people and reaps nearly $1 billion a year. And it’s still emerging from its adolescence.

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