—story by Ross Courtney
—graphic by Jared Johnson
With an improving economy, frictionless access and a curious consumer base, Mexico has become one of the American tree fruit industry’s export markets of choice.
Over the past 10 years, U.S. shippers of apples, cherries and pears have increasingly relied on their southern neighbor to prop up their export portfolios, while marketing groups plaster images of fruit on highway billboards, supermarket aisles and street stalls along with Mexican colloquialisms and popular movie characters.
“The Mexican market is quite resilient,” said Juan Carlos Moreira, hired by the Washington Apple Commission to promote apples in Mexico. Almost all U.S. apple exports to Mexico are from Washington.
Mexico is the top export market for apples and pears — and has been for some time. It’s No. 5 for cherries, but the share of exports heading to Mexico has steadily increased for all three crops over the past 10 years.
Of course, there’s uncertainty, too. Both countries recently elected new presidents, and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he intends to impose new tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico. Also, the peso has taken a hit in recent months.
Part of the reason for Mexico’s growing importance as an export market is the tit-for-tat tariffs levied in more far-flung markets, which began under the first Trump administration and continued under President Biden. Mexico did the same but has since removed tariffs on American fruit. Meanwhile, shipping costs and port congestion spiked during the pandemic. Trucking fruit to Mexico, just like Canada, isn’t necessarily cheap, but at least it doesn’t require ocean travel.
Mexico’s own economy has fostered a curiosity about fresh produce among consumers of all income levels.
Mexican families have, on average, more disposable income than they used to. The country’s gross domestic product in 2020 was three times its level in 1990, according to David Magaña, a market analyst for Rabobank. In the same time frame, birthrates fell from about 3.5 children per woman to a little over 2, about par with the United States. Farm wages in Mexico are also going up, even faster than in the U.S.
“More Mexican shoppers are going to supermarkets for fresh produce,” he said.
The country’s largest retailer is none other than Walmart, but other chains have built out, too, partially replacing the street-level stalls and corner stores of the past. That trend gives more fruit access to cold storage and means packers can work directly with retailers instead of wholesale import companies.
What’s more, Mexican shoppers show a flexibility in tastes and are willing to try more varieties than they have in the past. Even club apples make it to the Mexican market these days, while shoppers purchase a mixture of sizes and grades, too, said Lindsey Huber, international marketing manager for the Washington Apple Commission.
Groups promoting fruit are trying to take advantage of this upturn.
Apples, pears and cherries can all be found on billboards and other signs that springboard off Mexican sayings and traditions. For example, Grupo PM decks out red and green pears as skeletons for Day of the Dead murals. Apple marketers are five years into a campaign with the phrase “Life is easier with apples,” a spinoff of a Mexican tradition of explaining complex or abstract ideas with something relatable, such as an apple.
“It takes you back to school,” Moreira said. “In your first math book, one apple plus one apple is two.”
One of the biggest opportunities for pears is in the form of a nearly 15-year partnership that allows Grupo PM to mix pear advertisements with major movie characters without paying expensive license fees. It started when representatives of 20th Century Fox reached out to Grupo PM and suggested the cross-
promotions for the 2010 film “Gulliver’s Travels,” starring Jack Black. “Marmaduke” followed. Today, pears next to “Kung Fu Panda” and “Paw Patrol” adorn buses, supermarket aisles and highway billboards.
“We always talk about how lucky we are,” said Mónica Moreno Arellano, chief marketing officer for Grupo PM, which has the contract to promote USA Pears.
At a recent meeting of the Pear Bureau Northwest, which collectively promotes Washington and Oregon pears under the USA Pears brand, director of international marketing Jeff Correa praised how the industry’s efforts had reshaped the Mexican market for pears.
“We’ve transformed that market from a place to push off the problems of the industry to a vital market we rely on,” he said. “It’s our best market because it’ll take all price points.”
Tree fruit groups also market to import wholesalers, which they collectively call the “trade,” supplying them with technical information about the fruit and how to handle it.
Those wholesalers, supermarkets and street stalls all buy and sell from each other, forming a complex weave of fresh fruit trade in the country, attracting buyers from most income levels.
“We have consumers who know what they want,” Moreno Arellano said. •
Leave A Comment