California farmers protest Mexico's ban on lettuce

Mexico's ban on lettuce has drawn angry protest by California trade groups after an E. coli- related recall by a Central California farm.

The Mexican Ministry of Health earlier imposed a ban on U.S. lettuce after the voluntary recall of more than 8,500 cartons of green-leaf lettuce by Nunes Co. of Salinas in Central California after discovering E. coli bacteria in irrigation water used on the crop.

Farm interests from the Salinas Valley in Southern California to Washington reacted angrily to the ban on U.S. lettuce imports, according to the Los Angeles Times on Thursday.

"This is an outrageous step that has no basis at all in science or food safety," said Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

"The produce industry is being punished for being careful," Stenzel said.

Tests found that the contamination was a generic form of E. coli, which is common in water and soil around the world and generally not harmful to humans. A toxic strain of the bacteria had recently contaminated Salinas Valley spinach, sickening nearly 200 people and killing three. None of the recalled lettuce was headed for Mexico.

Froylan Gracia, agricultural counselor at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, defended the ban, saying that "countries can take actions that they think safeguard the lives of their citizens even if it seems subjective."

He said regulators from both countries were working to resolve the issue.

"Mexico has just added to our overall woes with consumer perception," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

The state's 250-million-dollar spinach business "remains really down," he said.

California farmers have been suffering from a blow to their business which is laboring to rebound from the spinach scare.

Perkins said growers were reporting that sales of other forms of bagged produce also had dipped, but he did not specify.

Mexico is not a major buyer of U.S. lettuce, purchasing 8.3 million dollars of the crop last year. California produces 1.7 billion dollars of lettuce a year.

Source: Xinhua