TRENDS IN PRODUCTION, POSTHARVEST MANAGEMENT AND NATIONAL AND EXPORT COMMERCIALIZATION OF NOPALITO (Opuntia ficus-indica)

Abstract

The production and export of vegetables are some of the most important activities of the Mexican economy. The production of nopalito (young and succulent cladodes of the genera Opuntia and Nopalea) in Mexico has increased in recent decades and has been recognized as a vegetable with increased export potential. The objectives of the present study were to identify the trends of production, postharvest handling and national and international marketing of nopalito (Opuntia ficus-indica), to characterize the differences in postharvest handling according to the production destination and to know its dynamics as a horticultural crop in Mexico. The information was obtained from bibliographic sources, official statistics and questionnaires applied to producers and exporters in Otumba and San Martín de las Pirámides regions, Estado de Mexico. The information regarding national production, which destined to export and internal consumption, is scarce; in part, for lack of a specific tariff fraction for nopalito. The systems of production of nopalito in Mexico destined for export contrast with those that produce nopalito for national consumption in the resources assigned by the producer.