The California Grape & Tree Fruit League (Fresno, California) administers the Stone Fruit Mexico Export Program which includes these commodities: apricots, peaches, plums, and nectarines.

Shippers who participate in the program have two options to ship fruit into Mexico: either the post-harvest quarantine treatment or systems approach. The systems approach includes detailed stipulations for pre-harvest trapping, monitoring and applications, of which must be meticulously documented.

Several inspectors representing the Mexican government live in the Fresno area during the season, which runs from May to October. This program relies on the cooperation of industry participants, local County Agricultural Commissioners’ offices, USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service representatives and the California Department of Food & Agriculture.

Record volumes of California peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines were exported to Mexico which totaled 3.6 million cartons in 2008. In 2007, 2.3 million boxes of stone fruits were exported to Mexico through the program. The majority of the export shipments during the 2007 and 2008 seasons were under the Systems Approach program, an alternative to fumigation.

Majority of the exported fruit shipped is under the “systems approach” program with more than 70 percent of last season’s shipments using this program. For further information on this program please contact Trade Director Marcy Martin.

Historical Stone Fruit Export Shipments to Mexico