ONLY ON ABC-7: ‘Trade war’ could soon affect New Mexico pecan industry, farmers warn

On a Wednesday afternoon in early August, Greg Salopek’s conveyor belts are overflowing with one of southern New Mexico’s most valuable cash crops: pecans.

“We’ve got to keep on moving,” Salopek told ABC-7. “The world’s not going to come to an end. We’re just going to have to work around it.”​

In early July, China imposed another tariff increase on United States pecans, raising the existing tariff to 47 percent. Doña Ana County produces more pecans than any county in the United States, another farmer confirmed.

“It seems like they’re trade wars going on,” Salopek said.

The farmer, who owns tens of thousands of pecan trees, predicts Mexico might help the United States stay afloat while the existing tariff is in place.

“Mexico’s going to be shipping a lot more pecans to China to the United States,” Salopek said. “So, we’ll be sending pecans to Mexico satisfy the demand.”

Salopek shares his viewpoint with another farmer, also named Greg.

“We expect there to be a lot of adjustments in our industry,” said Greg Daviet, who owns Dixie Ranch. “More pecans will move from Mexico into China and fewer pecans will move from Mexico into the United States.”

Daviet’s family has grown pecans since 1965 in the Mesilla Valley. He said this is the highest tariff on the crop he’s even seen.

“These sorts of high level government actions are very difficult to predict,” Daviet told ABC-7. “Obviously, we did not see the tariffs coming this summer. We probably are not able to predict when they will go away.”

He predicts the tariff will ultimately affect his production costs.

“The biggest impact that we expect to see is our consumption as farmers,” Daviet said. “So, the things that we consume to make our products will be more expensive for us to acquire.”