Americans increasingly consume Mexican cucumbers

Americans have maintained a growing trend in the consumption of Mexican cucumbers since 2015, according to data from the Ministry of the Economy.

Indeed, Mexican exports of fresh and frozen cucumbers and gherkins went from 420 million dollars in 2014 to 648 million dollars in 2020.

Throughout this period, the interannual growth of this indicator has maintained continuity.

Mexican cucumbers

Mexico exports practically all of its shipments (99.4% in value) of cucumbers to the United States, while the rest are sent to Canada.

In 2020, 818,221 tons of Mexican cucumbers were consumed in the United States, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year.

Production

Generally, according to the Cucumber Growers Association of the United Kingdom (CGA), cucumbers are grown using the cord training technique:

The main stem is trained by a vertical rope that is tied to a horizontal support cable placed about 2m above the ground. The lateral shoots are removed from the main stem until it reaches the supporting wire.

Then three strong side shoots are selected and the main growing point is removed.

The lateral shoots are allowed to cascade downward to a length of approximately 1 m and their growing points are removed to stimulate the development of the «sublateral» shoots.

Cultivation is done every 7 to 14 days when extra unwanted side shoots are removed. Plants grown in modern production facilities are «all-female» F1 hybrids that allow earlier cultivation and are suitable for more intensive production systems.

They also provide greater tolerance to plant pathogens such as mildew, effectively reducing growers’ dependence on intensive fungicide spraying programs and creating a more favorable environment for the establishment of biological control agents.