Two-thousand miles and seventeen years. That's the distance and time it took for South Carolina peaches to enter the Mexican import market in a meaningful way and land on the tabletops of Mexican citizens.
After years of fits and starts, jumping through hoops and over hurdles, Titan Farms, Ridge Spring, S.C., exported 64 truckloads amounting to 2.5 million pounds of South Carolina's iconic fruit to our southern neighbor in 2024.
It's a victory borne of intense collaboration between Titan, and the Clemson University Department of Plant Industry (DPI), which protects and serves South Carolina's agricultural and natural resources industries. And it's a long way from 2007 when talks first began and 2011 when Titan exported just two truckloads and about 80,000 pounds to the country.
Opportunity meets preparation
The journey to this milestone was neither quick nor straightforward. It began in 2007, when Clemson DPI joined forces with industry stakeholders to tackle the regulatory hurdles that had barred eastern peaches from entering Mexico. The initial phase focused on data collection and understanding pest populations in the Ridge Spring orchards.
"Clemson DPI was partnered at that point, and it was all about field trapping to get an understanding of what the pest populations in the orchards were so then the pitch — so to speak — to the Mexican Government could take place. For about four years, there was data collected, a lot of fruit cutting done in the orchards looking for actual pests, inside the fruit," said Ross Williams, Titan Farms Chief Operating Officer.
"For whatever reason, there was a pest found here and there, and Mexico closed the border again," Williams said.
The initial systems approach, which involved trapping and fruit cutting both in the field and at packing facilities, was eventually replaced with a post-harvest treatment using methyl bromide fumigation. This method aimed to eliminate any potential pests post-harvest. However, the process proved problematic. Requiring the fruit to be warmed and then re-cooled affected quality and shelf life. Despite these challenges, the team persisted, even when the 2013 and 2014 export attempts did not meet expectations.
"The warming of the fruit and the re-cooling of the fruit caused all types of quality issues, and really hurt the shelf life. That year, 2013, there was six or seven loads exported down to Mexico. They didn't perform well, so in 2014, we kind of rethought the process, and we packed the fruit at field temperature. The quality of the fruit was a little better, but it was just such an overbearing program for Clemson DPI, USDA and Titan staff," Williams said.
In 2015, Titan Farms took a new approach by using irradiation, leveraging a facility in Gulfport, Mississippi. This method involved placing each peach in a pest-proof bag and irradiating it before export. Although this technique showed promise, it was labor-intensive and presented logistical issues at the Mexican border.
The breakthrough came in 2016 when a new irradiation facility in McAllen, Texas, was established. This facility, equipped with an electron beam or radiation technology, offered a more streamlined solution. The fruit was irradiated in Mexico, reducing the complexity of pre-export treatment. Despite the advancements, logistical challenges, such as mishandling at the border, still plagued the process.
The turning point arrived in 2023, driven by a shift in the stone fruit market. With the largest peach grower in California going bankrupt, opportunities emerged for Titan. Renewed negotiations with Clemson DPI, USDA, and Mexican officials culminated in the adoption of a new treatment protocol at the McAllen facility. This facility, previously focused on treating mangoes, provided a less cumbersome process for ensuring pest-free peaches.
"So, we said, 'Hey, there might be an opportunity down in Mexico again.' So, we fired up the conversations again with Clemson DPI, USDA, and the Mexican officials and worked hard to get a new protocol in place," Williams said.
The downfall of the California grower coupled with the new treatment protocol and a bumper crop of South Carolina peaches all came together to result in 64 truckloads amounting to 2.5 million pounds of South Carolina's hitting Mexican store shelves.
"When it was just data collection Clemson DPI were the ones helping run traps, helping do fruit cuts, helping consolidate all the data in conjunction with entomologists at UGA. But then fast forward to today — we can't do what we do without them. The flexibility that Ted [Zee, Clemson DPI Nursery Operations Coordinator] and the rest of the team have brought has been incredibly helpful and the willingness to work with operations staff," Williams said.
Regulation through collaboration
Most Americans equate the word "regulation" with faceless nameless badge-wearing government bureaucrats throwing sand in the smooth-running gears of business by telling industries what they can't do rather than what they can do.
But Clemson DPI, which is a unit of the Clemson University Regulatory Services Division, takes a partnership approach to its regulatory role whenever possible.
Slicing peaches into slivers is part of the pre-export inspection process.
The Division protects the state from exotic and invasive species, ensures that pesticides are used safely, regulates the structural pest control industry, verifies that fertilizer and lime meet standards and labeled guarantees, conducts programs for seed and organic certification, provides diagnosis of plant pests, and ensures readiness to respond to a catastrophic event impacting the state's agriculture.
It's a big and important job, that touches the lives of all South Carolinians whether or not they notice, and it sometimes requires difficult decisions to protect the state's agricultural and natural resources industries from threats to its viability, but helping smooth the way for Titan to export "The Pride of the Ridge" to Mexico is the essence of regulation, says Steve Cole, Executive Director of PSA Regulatory Services.
"Regulation is most successful when it's collaborative in nature. It's very gratifying to be able to help an innovative and ambitious producer like Titan Farms enter a new market, so that people in other countries get to experience the best peaches in the world," Cole said.
Today Clemson DPI in collaboration with USDA APHIS supports Titan's peach exports to Mexico through continued orchard survey efforts and data collection and by the careful inspection of the fruit before it leaves for the McAllen radiation facility.
Clemson DPI and USDA officials also spend hours at a workstation inside the Titan packinghouse, first visually inspecting the pre-export peaches for blemishes that could signal trouble, then slowly slicing a subset of the peaches into slivers.
The inspection process helps ensure that the inside of the fruit is free from the larvae of Oriental Fruit Moths and Plum Curculio, both common orchard pests.
If exported fruit was ever found to be infested with these pests, it could risk exports from all South Carolina agricultural producers and the U.S. export market.
"While Clemson DPI is focused on keeping devastating pests out of South Carolina, and, once they are with us, minimizing their damaging impact, we must also ensure that pests don't tag along for their trip to international markets," said Steven Long, Assistant Director of Clemson DPI.
Williams says the export of Titan peaches to Mexico isn't just about its own growth.
"It's also good for the U.S as a whole, you know, helping to contribute to our net export goals and offset the trade imbalance with Mexico," Williams said.
The peaches that reach Mexican grocery stores are marketed as South Carolina peaches and market research has determined that the Mexican public is brand loyal.
"Here in the U.S., we expect high quality all the time, even the generic store brands. But in Mexico, there's still very much a willingness to pay additional money for higher quality. So, if you can get your brand recognized as a high-quality brand, there's a greater demand. We've found that South Carolina peaches are selling and in high demand. In Mexico City, our fruit is outselling California peaches by 12 to 14 a box," Williams said.
Source: Clemson News