Herbs and Salad Greens for Hydroponic Operation in Mexico
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Nancy Mayagoitia
Posted on: April 27, 2002

We are looking for lettuce seeds. A nice fancy variety to experiment with and decide which are the best to grow in our area. We have a new hydroponic -- with NFT system -- greenhouse in Oaxaca, Mexico. We have nice warm weather and we are at an altitude of 4500 feet above sea level. We are interested in leafy lettuces, salad greens and herbs. We want to know if you have them, and if you have successfully exported them into Mexico -- if so through which customs agents. If you have a distributor in Mexico or if you know of someone that does.

We can help with herbs, especially. We have a few salad greens and a few lettuces also.

Check the "Gourmet Vegetables" section of our online catalogue at http://www.richters.com for items such as vegetable amaranth, arugula, cornsalad (also known as "mache"), french dandelion, endive, leaf lettuces, mizuna, mustard, new zealand spinach, orach, purslane, rapini, shungiku, and sylvetta.

There are many herbs to try but certainly the basils, mints, corianders, tarragon, parsleys, oreganos, thymes, sorrels, are all worth trying. Probably the number one herb for hydroponic operations is basil. Beyond these obvious suspects, there are many "second tier" herbs that are suitable for a fresh herb hydroponic operation. These are very useful for helping to differentiate your product from the competition, especially if you are planning to export to the U.S. Herbs such as chervil, rau om, vietnamese balm and perilla.

The possibilities are many, so you need to think what your market focus will be, who you will be selling to, and how you plan to distinguish your product from the competition. Once the market focus is decided then you can narrow down the herbs and salad greens you will try.

As for exporting our seeds and plants to the Mexico, we have done that successfully. Mexico has phytosanitary rules that must be complied with, so it takes a bit of extra effort to get seeds and plants through customs -- but we have done that. Complying with the rules does add to the cost, and we cannot quote the final cost until we see the terms of importation on your import permit. You will need to get an import permit from your government.

We do not have a specific broker that we can recommend. Nor so we have a Mexican distributor as of yet (as of 2002).

Once you have made your selections and have an import permit we will be happy to provide a quote. Please contact our commmercial sales department at commercial@richters.com for a quote or for additional information.

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