Pick an area of the fresh produce sector that has been the most dynamic in the import market over recent years, and you could find a very good candidate in fresh tomatoes. According to a 2024 USDA report, volumes of fresh tomato imports have increased by a colossal 176% since 2000. But when it comes to the source of these tomatoes, the same report makes clear that more than 60% of them originate from greenhouses, an industry that has undergone its own rapid acceleration over the past two decades, especially south of the border in Mexico.
Although the USDA notes that U.S. greenhouse tomato production has grown, it remains far behind Mexican imports, which accounted for 88% of greenhouse-grown tomatoes in the U.S. in 2023. As detailed in a 2024 USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report, tomatoes are the second-largest produce item imported into the U.S., with an annual worth estimated at over $2.71 billion. The biggest produce import – avocados – is only slightly ahead at $2.72 billion.
Mexico, the world’s eighth-largest tomato producer, exports more than half of its annual tomato production north of the border from a harvest that was expected to total 3.3 million tonnes in 2024. Production is dominated by Sinaloa between December and April, before the focus switches to San Luis Potosí, Michoacán, and Jalisco in the center, and Sonora and Baja California further north.
However, the USDA notes that a trend gaining prominence across the Mexican tomato industry, regardless of location, has been the move towards protected agriculture in the form of shade houses, greenhouses, and plastic tunnels. The report found that, beginning in the early 2000s, the shift to protected production picked up pace in the 2010s and has continued to increase to the present day.
Elevating Production
Mission, Texas-based Globalmex International is one of the biggest grower-marketers of Mexican greenhouse-grown tomatoes in the U.S., which it markets under its Magic Sun brand. Close in structure to a cooperative, Globalmex International is, in effect, the U.S. import subsidiary of Zacatecas, Mexico-headquartered Agrícola Globalmex, a grower-owned company with 212 acres of greenhouse tomato production in central Mexico, covering Zacatecas, Jalisco, Querétaro, and further north in Chihuahua.
“As a company, we grow in high-tech, hydroponic greenhouses, and they are all at high elevations,” says Globalmex International sales manager Anthony Otto. “Most of what we do is greenhouse tomatoes and that includes conventional and organic on-the-vine, beefsteak, grape and cocktail varieties. New for 2024, we also have Roma tomatoes as well.”
According to Otto, greenhouses allow Globalmex to deliver the highest quality tomatoes because they can control the climate, nutrition, and hydration of the growing environment, and protect the tomatoes from outside threats such as pests, diseases, and weather damage.
“The greenhouses are obviously a pretty big upfront investment, but they provide a growing environment that allows us to reduce or even eliminate pesticide usage through integrated pest management and a protected environment that reduces the amount of threats that can get into the crops,” he says. “This is especially important on organic crops where you are not allowed to use pesticides.”
Based in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in Mexico’s northwest, Del Campo produces and exports a range of products, including tomatoes, bell peppers, and eggplants, of which up to 90% are produced in shade-houses or under plastic. According to Diego Ley, head of Del Campo’s U.S. subsidiary in Nogales, Arizona, up to 100% of the company’s operations in central Mexico are grown under plastic, covering its full line of tomatoes, from beefsteak and Roma through to medley, grape, heirloom, and cherry varieties.
The company is also adding a new cocktail variety available loose or on-the-vine to its mix for 2024. “It’s similar to a Campari, but a little bit bigger – it’s a high-flavor tomato, and we think it has a better taste and eating experience profile,” says Ley.
“In terms of varieties, we have experienced success with varieties that do better in the areas where we grow, such as rugose-resistant varieties,” he continues. “We were one of the first to grow a rugose-resistant variety in Mexico and one of the first to understand how to handle these varieties, and when you understand a variety you can maximize its potential.
“We have also done a lot better with grafting, which has led to fewer incidents of seeds not germinating and this has increased our overall efficiency.”
Key to succeeding in agriculture, according to Ley, is having good production and good markets. He adds that Del Campo has benefited from both, thanks to a strong winter season. Over the year to date, he notes that production levels have so far been stable.
“In Sinaloa, where we have a warm climate and you get little rain, we grow in shadehouses to shield the crop from pests,” says Ley. “Therefore, we can apply much less pesticide and don’t use herbicides. We can also incorporate beneficial insects into the shadehouses.
“In central Mexico, we have to use plastic because it’s only a matter of time before you get rain, and when you get rain you don’t get quality. We also get a lot of temperature inconsistencies, and growing under plastic extends the season to the beginning of winter.”
According to Félix Tarrats, managing director at Querétaro, Mexico-based Ceickor University, greenhouse production gives growers the opportunity to produce everything from cherry and grape tomatoes through to Roma and round with higher levels of brix. In contrast, he says open-field production is largely limited to round and Roma, away from more specialist crops that are more susceptible to pests and diseases.
“We have the U.S. and Canada very close by, and it’s difficult to have competition from Europe or Asia because they have to cross the ocean, and tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers have a shorter shelf-life than pineapples or bananas,” he says.
“The other factor is the conditions in Mexico. We have very good light in winter, which means we are able to produce year-round. In the U.S. and Canada in winter, the light and temperatures are reduced, so it is natural that the growth in Mexico of greenhouse production would be able to cover this demand.”
Located in central Querétaro state, Ceickor University was founded by the company of the same name in 2006 as a commercial greenhouse operation but was partially converted into an educational institute in response to strong growth in greenhouses across Mexico in the years that followed. The commercial arm that continues to the present day forms part of Globalmex.
“There was no one in Mexico to train or pass on the necessary knowledge to, so we started to provide courses, and in 2011 we opened the university because there was a huge demand for technicians due to the fact that the industry was undergoing enormous growth,” says Tarrats. “We started a university specialized in protected agriculture where it’s 60% practical and 40% theory, and each generation of students has a greenhouse where they learn and make decisions.”
For Tarrats, the biggest advantage of greenhouse production is the water footprint, given that open-field production can cause a “very significant” loss of water. In contrast, the ability of greenhouses to disinfect and recirculate water gives the industry a major advantage in limiting water consumption.
The other headline-grabbing advantage is that, according to Tarrats, growers can produce three times as much in greenhouses than in open fields, thanks to having a significantly longer production time. “We can harvest over 38-40 weeks compared with 12-15 weeks in an open field because our control of diseases and pests allows us to increase the production cycle,” he says.
According to Tarrats, the presence of pollinators and biological controls across many greenhouses means that tomatoes produced in a controlled environment rely to a far lesser extent on agrochemicals, reducing residues on end products.
Currently, Tarrats says greenhouse tomato production is largely concentrated in Mexico’s central Bajío mega-region, an area covering Querétaro, Guanajuato, and parts of San Luis Potosí and Jalisco. The altitude of much of the Bajío region lies between 1,600-2,000 meters, meaning extreme summer temperatures are rare, and production can continue year-round.
Challenges Remain
Labor is one of the biggest challenges that nearly every company in the industry is grappling with. Whereas in previous years, agricultural workers were relatively easy to source in Mexican fields, Diego Ley of Del Campo says recruitment has now become “expensive and limited,” reducing the advantage Mexico had over the U.S. and Canada. “The new generation isn’t willing to go into the industry because it’s hard and physically demanding to work,” he says.
Otto at Globalmex agrees, citing labor and the increasing costs of packaging materials like boxes and clamshells as primary factors pushing costs up across the board. “In the end, you can only sell a tomato for what a tomato is worth,” he says. “The challenge is managing those costs as much as possible.”
Adding further complexity to the industry’s economic landscape is the ongoing friction between Mexican and U.S. tomato growers. High volumes of Mexican imports have periodically sparked trade tensions, leading to the establishment of the Tomato Suspension Agreement in 1996. This agreement requires Mexican exporters to sell tomatoes at or above a minimum price to avoid accusations of dumping, or selling below production costs to dominate the market. Despite this arrangement, U.S. growers have periodically renewed accusations that Mexican tomatoes are unfairly priced, claiming it undercuts domestic prices and affects their prices.
Additionally, Tarrats of Ceickor University notes that while the greenhouse industry grew significantly over the past decade, a lack of government support and the recent strength of the Mexican peso against the U.S. dollar have slowed growth over the past two years. “We have to see what the new government will bring, but I don’t see more growth over the short term,” he notes.
Looking Forward
Where does Mexico’s greenhouse tomato industry go next? Ley says that consumers in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico have become more demanding when it comes to food quality and the overall eating experience, presenting both challenges and opportunities for growers.
“If you are a good grower and have been doing it for a long time, you have good opportunities because you can find yourself in these markets which pay more and are less commoditized,” he says. “The buyers know which growers and shippers really invest in their products and their brands, and we are happy to be one of those companies.”
While Ley freely admits that Del Campo experienced some struggles with yield in the recent past, he says that over the past two years, the grower has resolved most of these issues, achieving the desired yield levels. “A lot has been achieved with better tomato varieties and agricultural practices,” says Ley. “We have managed to get to production levels that we are more comfortable with.”
Looking ahead, the greenhouse tomato industry in Mexico appears poised for further innovation and growth. As consumer expectations evolve and environmental pressures continue to influence agricultural practices, the industry may encounter both new opportunities and challenges. How growers respond to these dynamics will shape not only the future of Mexican tomato production but also the broader landscape of North American agriculture.
