Mexicans Buy Tomatoes Rejected by U.S.

In Salmonella Scare, Export-Quality Produce Sells for One-Third the Normal Price

MEXICO CITY, June 12 -- Export-quality tomatoes labeled "Ready to Eat" in English flooded Mexico City markets on Thursday after a salmonella scare in the U.S. trapped them south of the border.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers against three types of raw tomatoes that have sickened 228 people in 23 states since mid-April. It has not pinpointed the outbreak's source but cleared imports from six countries -- though not from Mexico, which supplies 80 percent of the tomatoes imported into the United States.

Tomatoes from several counties in Florida are also under suspicion, the FDA said.

Mexican growers and government officials called the warning unjust, noting it had brought exports to a halt and could cripple Mexico's $1 billion tomato industry. The United States has no proof that any contaminated tomatoes were from Mexico, they said.

"What we hope is that they finish their investigation soon" and clear the fruit, Mexico's Agriculture Secretary Alberto Cardenas said Thursday. "Mexican tomatoes are clean."

A delegation of Mexican officials flew to Washington on Thursday to help the FDA find the source of the outbreak, Cardenas said.

Mexican tomato growers said their produce was subject to double the scrutiny that U.S. tomatoes face: inspected first by Mexican officials and then again at the border.

But some U.S. consumers associate the outbreak with Mexican produce and stopped buying the fruit this week.

"We can't sell a single box of tomatoes," said Jesus Macias, sales manager at the Productora Agricola Industrial del Noreste, a tomato grower that normally ships 50,000 boxes of tomatoes a day to an importer in Chula Vista, Calif.

Instead, he now sends his top-quality tomatoes to markets around Mexico where they sell for a third the U.S. price. He leaves lesser-quality produce, normally sold in Mexico, to rot.

At the capital's bustling central food market, truckloads of tomatoes are now arriving in boxes originally meant for the United States. The top-quality tomatoes now sell for 35 cents a pound in the capital.

Most customers don't know about the salmonella scare, and those who do don't seem alarmed. Some shoppers said they have always been more careful than Americans in preparing produce -- they have to be, because vegetables sold in Mexico are not held to the same standards as those certified for export.

Mexican growers certified by the FDA must meet the same requirements as U.S. farmers. Their fields are irrigated with fresh water, workers at packing plants wear head-to-toe sterile clothing, and inspectors follow the fruit from field to truck.

"The problem didn't originate here," said Ricardo Montiel, 41, who was selling tomatoes, apples and avocados from his stand in Mexico City's largest food market. "It is as easy as looking around and seeing that people haven't gotten sick."