(179) An Overview of the Sonoran Vegetable Industry

Abstract

Sonora, Mexico, is an outstanding area for growing good quality and high-yield vegetables, fruits, and nuts for year-round exportation. Each year, Sonora produces important, large quantities of fruits and nuts for exportation, including table grape, citrus, pecan, and olive fruit. Also, fresh vegetable production in Sonora is very important. Annually, large volumes of melon, pumpkin, summer squash, chili, husk tomato, tomato, and asparagus are produced for exportation to the United States, Europe, and Japan. Throughout the year, two important growing seasons for vegetable production have been established in Sonora. The most important growing season for vegetable exportation in Sonora is the autumn-winter season, when higher prices are reached for summer vegetables in the U.S. markets. The autumn–winter season begins in August and finishes in December. In Sonora, during the 2002–03 agricultural cycle, 39,666 ha (89,000 acres) of vegetables were established in the field. Many growers in Sonora are investing in imported high technologies for protected cropping from several developed countries, such as the United States, Canada, Israel, and some European countries. Currently in Sonora, high technology is applied by growers for vegetable production, i.e., plastic mulching, low and high tunnels, greenhouses, and shadow frames, which have been frequently used on fresh vegetable commercial production to improve both quality and yield. Because of a large labor force and the attractive income from fresh vegetable exportations to the United States, fresh vegetable production is a very important industry in Sonora. In fact, growing summer vegetables for exportation during the wintertime in Sonora, Mexico, is a good business.