Exhibitors informed us that they are currently very busy serving the burgeoning Mexican greenhouse industry with their technologies and supplies. Some of them even told us that they could hardly keep up with all the work that the increasing growth of the industry brings them. As Mexico's acreage with protected crops (from high end greenhouse farming and plasticulture to low and medium tech tunnel and shade farms) is estimated to continue growing with at least 1,200 hectares per year, it is expected that the show provides even more room for growth in the future.
Click here to see our photo recap from the 2016 Expo Agroalimentaria Guanajuato
Continuous growth
Almost every greenhouse builder is currently working on new greenhouse projects in Mexico. Growers are either expanding, transitioning from field crops or investing in controlled environment agriculture in order to serve the U.S.' growing demand for year round vegetable supply. Mexico has become one of the most important suppliers of fresh produce to the U.S., and at the show not many Mexicans seemed to be worried that the election of Donald Trump will disorder export trends. On the contrary, some of the Mexicans were not unhappy with the devaluation of the Peso, since the horticultural industry is, after all, a dollar business.As many North American greenhouse farmers are replacing the decreasing supply of field crops with greenhouse grown crops, Mexico has became a counterpart to U.S. and Canadian growers to have stable quality available year round. On the other hand there are some curious Mexican growers who are currently looking at shifting their planting schedules or are exploring the possibilities to grow year round. Another trend we noticed is the increased interest in organic production.