• INSPECTIONS: Mexican agriculture associations and government are advising tomato and pepper producers to perform inspections to detect the tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) that could affect their exports after new measures at the border ordered by the US Department of Agriculture.
• DAMAGE: US and Mexican authorities report no human health impacts from the ToBRFV -first detected in Israel in 2014- but Florida’s Department of Agriculture has warned that it can cause 30% to 70% loss of tomato yield on plants. It also makes it less desirable to consumers.
• BORDER: “If (US officers) detect at a glance that the virus may exist in a load, they have the…power to stop the load and submit it to laboratory tests. If the test is positive, it returns to Mexico”, said Alfredo Díaz from Mexico’s Association of Protected Horticulture (AMHPAC).
• TOMATOES: Mexico is the number one supplier of imported tomatoes to the US accounting for 91% of imported tomato volume and worth USD 2.0 billion in 2018; leader among states in tomato production is the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa, one of Mexico’s agricultural meccas.
