As I get ready for Thanksgiving, I keep thinking back to the USDA Trade Mission to Mexico that Organic Trade Association joined earlier this month. It was an incredible week, I was joined by OTA’s International Trade Manager, Sarah Gorman as well as OTA members, Bridges Produce, inc, Commercial Lynks Inc., Santini Foods, Inc., and Clarkson Grain Company. We traveled alongside Secretary Brook Rollins and Undersecretary Luke J. Lindberg and other US cooperators and agribusiness on the largest U.S. ag trade mission ever. Big thanks to USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and U.S. Embassy in Mexico for hosting us.
Over five packed days, we met with Mexican officials, buyers, agribusiness leaders, and retailers—and came away with one message loud and clear: Mexico is a powerhouse opportunity for USDA organic.
A few standout facts:
🌎 Mexico is the #1 export market for U.S. organic products, with nearly $300M in tracked exports in 2024.
📈 From 2023 to 2024, U.S. organic exports to Mexico grew 27%.
🚀 In 2025, exports are already up 13% year-to-date.
🥬 Organic specialty crops now make up 12.5% of all U.S. specialty crop exports to Mexico—more than double organic’s share of U.S. retail sales (5.8%).
And here’s the surprising part:
👉 All this growth comes from just 36 tracked HTS export codes, mostly in specialty crops. But in stores across Mexico, we saw a much bigger story—shelves full of American organic products that aren’t tracked at all.
Which means…
👉 The real value of the Mexican organic market could easily be double or even triple what the official numbers show.
Mexico’s demand for healthy, wholesome products is accelerating quickly. Consumers are increasingly seeking out organic—and by population, there are as many potential organic consumers in Mexico as in Canada.
From global retailers like Costco and Walmart to local chains like City Market and Soriana, USDA Organic was everywhere. As one market expert that advises the U.S. Embassy told us: “Ten years ago I wrote a paper saying organic wouldn’t work in Mexico. Guess what—I was wrong.”
And it’s no wonder demand is strong:
👉 75% of Mexican consumers recognize and trust the USDA Organic seal, just nine points behind Mexico’s own national organic label.
👏 A huge shout-out to OTA members we found across retail channels—mostly from these untracked categories: Amy's Kitchen, Earthbound Farm, Traditional Medicinals, Food For Life Baking Co., Inc., Nature's Path Foods, Forager Project , Bolthouse Farms, yogi stress relief tea , Annie's Inc., Earth's Best, Inc., Wedderspoon, and many more.
The opportunity in Mexico is real, expanding, and far bigger than what the spreadsheets capture. Excited for what comes next.
#Organic, USDA National Organic Program (Agricultural Marketing Service)
