American farms’ answer to illegal immigration is to grow crops in Mexico – International Herald Tribune
Scaroni owns VegPacker, a California and Guanajuato-based company that grows lettuce, celery, cauliflower and other vegetables. VegPacker has struggled after forking out millions of dollars to launch its Mexico division two years ago.
The problem is that cheaper labor in Mexico often is offset by lower productivity and high training costs, especially when it comes to enforcing U.S. food-safety standards.
“The only thing that’s cheaper down here is diesel fuel and the labor per day,” Scaroni said. “My productivity is down 40 percent” from U.S. levels.
“I’m very concerned about the future of agriculture in the U.S.,” he added.
A Mexican official not authorized to speak on the record explained that gangs running the lucrative Cuban smuggling route into the U.S. charge between $10,000 to $12,000 per head, compared to the $2,000 Mexicans pay “coyotes” to take them over the desert into the U.S. And it is the high profits have driven the killings, officials say, with rival groups allying with Mexican gangsters to fight over the spoils of the trade.