The Rising Tide of Produce Imports from Latin America Trends Challenges and Safety Measures for Importers

The United States now imports nearly 59% of its fresh fruit and 36% of its fresh vegetables from abroad. Most of that supply flows north from Mexico and Latin America. That dependency has been building for two decades, and the numbers tell a clear story about where food safety pressure is heading next.

Two Decades of Growth

In 2004, U.S. agricultural imports from Latin America were significant but manageable in scope. By 2024, the picture looked dramatically different. Mexico alone shipped approximately 25.1 billion pounds of fresh produce to the U.S. in 2023, worth nearly $18 billion. Agricultural trade across the region grew at a compound annual rate of 6.9% between 2007 and 2021, and Mexico's share of those imports climbed from 44% to 58% in that same period.

Beyond Mexico, the rest of Latin America has filled critical supply gaps. Guatemala exports over 6 billion pounds of produce annually to the U.S., driven largely by bananas and melons. Costa Rica ships 4.4 billion pounds, primarily pineapples. Peru, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil round out a supply chain that now delivers 10 of the top 15 fruit suppliers to U.S. grocery stores.

This growth reflects genuine economic logic: favorable climates, lower labor costs, and geographic proximity. But it also concentrates risk. When safety systems in origin countries fall short, U.S. consumers bear the consequences.

Refusals Are Rising Fast

The FDA's import refusal data paints a sobering picture. Fresh produce, specifically vegetables and fruit, consistently tops the list of refused food categories. Vegetables alone account for roughly 20.6% of all FDA food import violations, with fruit products adding another 11.7%. The leading causes are unsafe pesticide residues in vegetables and sanitary violations in fruit shipments.

Since 2021, the volume of refused fresh produce shipments has nearly tripled in certain high-risk categories. The FDA attributes much of this to expanded use of Import Alerts, which flag known high-risk suppliers and route their shipments to automatic detention. When a single supplier from Mexico or Guatemala lands on an Import Alert, every shipment they send gets held at the border until they prove compliance, a process that can take months and cost importers significantly.

The broader context matters here: the FDA physically inspects only about 1% of all import shipments. That means the vast majority of produce crosses the border with no direct federal oversight at the port of entry. The system depends heavily on importers themselves doing the verification work before shipments ever arrive.

The FSVP: Your Legal Obligation and First Line of Defense

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) established the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) precisely because of this inspection gap. Under FSVP regulations, every U.S. importer of food for human consumption must verify that their foreign suppliers provide the same level of public health protection required by U.S. law.

For fresh produce importers, that means verifying compliance with the FDA Produce Safety Rule (21 CFR Part 112), which governs agricultural water quality, worker hygiene, soil amendments, and equipment sanitation at the farm level.

The FSVP is not optional, and it is not a one-time checkbox. It requires ongoing, documented activity that includes:

• A written hazard analysis for each commodity imported

• A formal evaluation of each supplier's food safety performance and compliance history

• Defined verification activities carried out on a set schedule

• Recordkeeping maintained for at least two years and available to the FDA in English on request

• A Qualified Individual (QI) overseeing all FSVP activities, with documented training and credentials

At the port of entry, importers must also provide their name, email address, and a DUNS number as a Unique Facility Identifier for each line of entry. Missing or incorrect information can trigger holds and delays even for compliant shipments.

Building a Verification Program That Holds Up

Many importers treat FSVP as a documentation exercise rather than a genuine food safety system. That approach works until an outbreak happens or the FDA requests your records during an inspection. At that point, a folder of outdated audit reports and missing hazard analyses becomes a serious regulatory problem.

A verification program that actually holds up under scrutiny shares a few common traits. It is risk-based, meaning higher-risk commodities like ready-to-eat produce receive more rigorous and frequent verification than lower-risk items. It is supplier-specific, with distinct hazard analyses and verification plans for each origin country and each facility. And it is current, with records updated whenever a supplier changes a practice, a farm adds a new growing location, or FDA publishes new guidance on an emerging hazard.

One area that catches importers off guard is the treatment of small or new suppliers. The FSVP does allow for modified requirements for very small suppliers averaging less than $1 million in annual food sales. But that exemption does not remove all obligations, and it does not shield an importer from liability if a shipment from a small supplier causes a foodborne illness outbreak.

The Cost of Getting It Wrong

Import violations are not just a regulatory inconvenience. A single Import Alert can freeze an importer's entire supply chain for a season. A product recall linked to foreign produce can cost millions in destroyed inventory, lost retail contracts, and legal exposure. And beyond the business impact, there is the public health reality: contaminated fresh produce is among the leading causes of foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S., with leafy greens alone implicated in dozens of significant outbreaks over the past decade.

The importers who navigate this environment successfully are not the ones who import the least or avoid Latin American suppliers. They are the ones who treat supplier verification as a core business function, not a compliance burden. They invest in qualified food safety staff, build real relationships with their suppliers, and audit with genuine scrutiny rather than just collecting paperwork.

Where the Industry Is Heading

Import volumes from Mexico and Latin America will keep growing. Climate shifts are pushing more fruit and vegetable production to tropical and subtropical regions. Consumer demand for year-round availability of berries, avocados, tomatoes, and peppers is not slowing down. And the economic incentives for sourcing from Latin America remain strong.

That means the FSVP will become more important, not less, over the next decade. The FDA has signaled that FSVP enforcement is a priority, with a growing number of warning letters citing FSVP deficiencies as a primary violation. Importers who have not fully implemented their programs are not flying under the radar. They are one inspection away from a serious problem.

The good news is that effective supplier verification is achievable. It requires investment, structure, and genuine commitment, but importers who get it right gain a real competitive advantage: supply chains that are more resilient, retail partners who trust their sourcing, and a defensible position when regulators come asking questions.

The produce import boom from Latin America is an opportunity. Whether it becomes a liability depends almost entirely on what happens inside an importer's verification program.