The ‘patient’ Fed has been lamenting the “lack of inflation” for far too long. It is about to get its wish.
American food merchants are struggling to import fruits and vegetables from Mexico as wait times at port of entries along the Mexico–US border have surged because of a shift in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel away from the port of entries to remote regions of the border to fight illegal crossings. As a result, shipments of food have dramatically declined in recent weeks, and the result is an imminent spike in imported food prices in the coming months that could put a sizeable dent in consumer wallets.
Fruit and vegetable importers that wholesale to grocery stores throughout the US, could inflate prices by at least 20% to 40% if the wait times continue, with avocado prices already soaring (see “Mexican Avocado Prices Explode By Most In A Decade After Trump Border Threat“).
And it’s not just avocados: cucumbers, eggplants, bell peppers, squash, cherry tomatoes, watermelons, and most other fruit and vegetables imported from the tropics would be affected.
“(The) Mexican border, it’s one of the most important crossings to the United States,” said Joshua Duran, Amore Produce sales representative.
About 43% of all US fruit and vegetables originate from Mexico. In the last several decades, Mexico has become the top trading partner with the US. Much of the US-Mexico commerce involves mega-corporations that send products back and forth across the border as part of a critical segment of their supply chain that has increased since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect in 1994.
This month [April], distributor Amore Produce truck drivers hauling product from Mexico have experienced a 300% wait time at the various port of entries along the Mexico–US border, stuck in line for up to 15 hours.
“Now we are having a lot of problems in the border,” Duran said. “So, let’s say we used to have like five hours. We’re getting 10 or 15 hours to pass that truck to the United States…one or two (gates) are not enough to get all the entire trucks coming from Mexico and not only for produce, for all the products that people here in the United States get from Mexico.”
Increase wait times have depleted cold storage inventories of McAllen Produce Terminal Market, located just 20 minutes from the border. Duran said the importer cannot ship fresh produce across the country anymore becuase their truck drivers are waiting almost a day to move product across the port of entry – by the time it makes it to the US, the produce won’t make it fresh to the wholesaler.
“We couldn’t get it here and we couldn’t send it to the customers in the north,” Duran said.
Marabella Produce owner Alejandro Knight suggested that wait time increases have impacted his cold-storage levels in the last month. Knight said his warehouse is always at full capacity, but now, the floors are covered with empty pallets. Most of the produce Knight receives from Mexico is spoiled, thanks to wait time increases, warehouse workers have to immediately throw out the produce once it arrives.
“We cannot deliver a fresh product anymore if we have to wait for each load to cross, five to six days, it’s impossible to work like this,” Knight warned.
Knight said Mexican farmers are now “afraid” to export fruits and vegetables to the US because of extended wait times.
Salavador Contreras, an economist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said if wait times increase, it could inflate produce for everyday American consumers.
“It’s going to be felt at the grocery stores when we start paying more for limes and our avocados at the grocery store,” Contreras said.
If the wait times persist at the border, in the coming months Americans will be shocked by soaring prices in the produce section of their local grocery stores, a move that could reverse consumer sentiment right before an important election year. But at least the Fed will be delighted: it will have achieved some of that “symmetric” inflation overshoot it has been seeking for so long… and all thanks to Trump.
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Whole Foods just cut the regular (non-sale) price of organic Romaine lettuce and all other organic greens to $1.99. (I buy very little at “Whole Paycheck”.) Couple weeks ago I bought avocados for 49 cents each at Aldi’s. So far, at least, I haven’t seen a big jump in prices. Beef is expensive (by my frugal reckoning), so I don’t buy much of that. Bought oranges at $.99/lb. If this is some scare article about Trump’s border policies, it’s not working.
Check Aldi again. I was there yesterday. They had one bag of crappy looking organic avocados, which I won’t buy because avocados don’t need to be organic. They didn’t have one non-organic avocado. I went to Costco after that. They had plenty at 8.99 for a bag of 6. That’s the highest I’ve ever seen them at Costco.
INFLATION…..bottom line, you can’t print money by the billions/trillions and have low inflation . Food , gas and utilities are not included in the index, how convenient for the District of Criminals. Yup, food will be going up….get ready.
Thought that occurred to me, why is that much food grown in Mexico vs here? Why can’t we grow our own food and not have to ship it across the border?
Climate climate climate. Because of their proximity to the equator, the southern “states” of Mexico are more conducive to “year-round” growing. In the winter, months after the US has harvested, they still have crops coming in.
They get to use the really dangerous pesticides that is banned for the “farmers” here.
Orthene comes to mind, though it can be spread to kill fire ants.
Gas jumped .15/gal overnight two days ago to 2.59-it was 1.84 just 2 months ago.
This is round 1, domestic production will tank later, many are unable to plant still in a large swath of the midwest.
This is largely feed, so expect downstream prices, ie. Pork, eggs, beef, etc. to rise fall/ winter.
Combine with massive loss of calves, I have heard estimates as high a 3million, but at least a million, and this winter could be very spendy.
Good ,I am more than willing to pay higher prices for food. Shut that damn border down before these Democrats Communist get a total lock on power.
Watch Europa : the Last Battle . This is what going to happen to US if we don’t . I mean white people. Watch all 12 hours for an education.
The cold weather and crop losses here will make everything more expensive. I hear little about it.
The higher cost of avocados, cucumbers, eggplants, bell peppers, squash, cherry tomatoes, watermelons is far cheaper than your tax dollars supporting the mud invaders.
Those invaders generally aren’t the ones in the fields. The current crop of invaders heads to the cities and start soaking up the welfare almost immediately. Put in a garden, raise chickens and grow forage for the chickens in case grain costs go thru the roost. Invest in good fencing, get a couple of guard dogs that won’t mess with the birds, and start composting. If you live in the burbs and have a backyard, grow stuff in raised beds, container gardening isn’t enough, you plant ten times what you think you’ll need because shit can happen. Then learn to can or at least freeze and maybe fermenting and you’ll be ahead of the curve but no guarantees.
The casual observer will be surprised at how much work it is to grow stuff, harvest it at the right time (before bugs and/or weather ruin it) and process enough to make a substantial dent in their needs for the next year.
Truer words were never spoken….
We have a similar problem in the U.K. Fear of increased food prices is being used by the major supermarkets and the MSM to force us to accept BRINO (Brexit in Name Only). They also want us in the customs union to keep the borders open for migrants.
Like the US we are not self sufficient in food, so a lot of food is imported from all over the World. Grapes from Chile, green beans from Kenya, wine from Australia or South America, the list is endless. We don’t have the climate for avocados or limes. So they’re all imported from tropical countries or the southern Mediterranean.
It seems most of the sheeple have lost their ability to think of themselves, CNN knows this and takes advantage of them daily. An example was the increase in health insurance costs that shocked most Americans, after Obama and the media told them they will save money.
With this in mind, do you think the mindless followers of CNN will be able to recognize their increase in costs for purchasing veggies is directly related to the open border policies of the democrats? At least the people of France were able to put two and two together and put on the yellow vests. Have we fallen so low?
43% of America’s fresh produce coming from a foreign nation is a huge problem . Placing another nation in control of any large percentage of our food supply is just plan wrong on any number of levels . OK people time for that vertical hydroponic or aquaponic garden project ASAP . Then there is the fish from China and Vietnam now what …? Beef , Pork & Poultry .
This could represent the beginning of a bumpy road for people that eat !