Gov. Katie Hobbs meets with with stakeholders on March 7, 2025, in Nogales, Arizona, to discuss the challenges of fluctuating fresh produce tariffs on Mexico.After meeting with more than a dozen stakeholders in Nogales, Arizona, Friday, Gov. Katie Hobbs said the back and forth is creating a lot of distrust in the economy.
“It's creating uncertainty for the agricultural industry, across industry and across the community," she said. "It doesn't just affect agriculture; it affects all these industries, and all these industries that are critical to the economy here in Nogales. So it's just creating a lot of chaos.”
Skip Hulett is with NatureSweet, which grows tomatoes in Willcox and various states in Mexico.
“It's very disruptive," he said, during a roundtable with Hobbs. Our cherubs, which is the number one seller — it's the number one selling tomato in the country. We grow about 175 million pounds a year that we bring over, and so we're really struggling through this whole just the uncertainty. What business wants more than anything and needs more than anything is just certainty, especially in fresh produce.”
He said those tomatoes can only be grown in Mexico — at the affordable price U.S. consumers are accustomed to.
A University of Arizona study found economic activity in the U.S. linked to produce imports through the Nogales port of entry is about 5-billion-dollars annually.
Last week, President Donald Trump put a one-month pause, for the second time, on some 25% tariffs, including on produce from Mexico.
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