Mexico: Chihuahua king of NAFTA chile

In New Mexico, the fall harvest of the state’s staple and iconic chile crop plugs along, albeit at a greatly reduced level — and with more early season red pods than usual — in comparison with even a decade ago.

Francisco Gomez Rodriguez, treasurer of the Chihuahua State Vegetable Sanitary Committee, told El Diario de Chihuahua that some 78,000 acres of chile are under cultivation this year in the northern Mexican border state, or about ten times the 8,100 acres (7,700 harvested) of peppers sown in New Mexico last year. The chile shown in this photo was grown in the Mimbres Valley in New Mexico.

Francisco Gomez Rodriguez, treasurer of the Chihuahua State Vegetable Sanitary Committee, told El Diario de Chihuahua that some 78,000 acres of chile are under cultivation this year in the northern Mexican border state, or about 10 times the 8,100 acres (7,700 harvested) of peppers sown in New Mexico last year. The chile shown in this photo was grown in the Mimbres Valley in New Mexico.

In glaring contrast, chile production just across the border in the Mexican state of Chihuahua marches forward to the tune of a pepper piper on a massive scale, supplying both the domestic Mexican and foreign export markets.

Francisco Gomez Rodriguez, treasurer of the Chihuahua State Vegetable Sanitary Committee, told El Diario de Chihuahua that some 78,000 acres of chile are under cultivation this year in the northern Mexican border state, or about 10 times the 8,100 acres (7,700 harvested) of peppers sown in New Mexico last year. Gomez pegged the value of the Chihuahua state crop at approximately $375 million.

Of the planted acreage in Chihuahua, about two thirds of the chile is destined for domestic plates, while approximately one third (26,000 acres) goes to the tariff-free U.S. market, according to Gomez’s numbers.

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