Still in Merida with my friends and business partners, Yunuen and Gabriel of Xoxoc, we took a side trip with our friends Delfina and Elidae from Semilla de Dioses. They took us to the small village of Chaksikin. It was small but charming with all kinds of housing from wood huts to McMansions, of a sort.
The main chiles of the growers here are the lucrative habaneros and a chile called Chile Verde, which is mostly used dried.
This co-op has about 11 members. Among themselves they spoke Mayan.
We met with the men for quite a long time. They are very slow to warm up to strangers and I think having Elidae and Delfina with us helped. In fact, I know it did.
I'm not sure where all this will lead but it does seem like chiles will really be our next big project. With increasing production in China and decreasing farmers in Mexico, unable to compete, it seems like we need to start importing more of the dried chiles that make Mexican food so great. The problem is that the U.S. government has really strict rules on importing chiles and it's not going to be easy.
And yet here I stand with two of my best friends in the world, in a chile field, and I feel completely at home. It makes too much sense not to pursue this!
Steve, why are the import regulations on chiles more restrictive than other products?
Posted by: Elizlk | April 22, 2011 at 07:19 AM
Maybe you can diversify and have the chile max (mash) on the development plan as well. It's a hot little sucker that grows everywhere down here and up to Tabasco state.
If it's not on the US govt radar, call it mini-apples or something to get around import restrictions :)
Posted by: WilliamLawson | April 22, 2011 at 11:00 AM
re the US GOV, the chiles from China that we have been importing (mostly Mexican varieties) have shown up with heavy metals in them, apparently so much so that all new chile imports need to be inspected and fees are charged that really send the price up. We're going to try and consolidate with the heirloom chile growers I met in Oaxaca in the spring and make one big shipment to avoid more fees. It's just a case of timing. The other problem is the chiles are sun dried and there can be traces of bugs. Even though you cook them later, importing has always been tough, apparently.
William, can I taste them while I'm down here? What are they called in the mercado? Thanks for the tip!
Posted by: steve sando | April 22, 2011 at 10:00 PM