The Arteaga region in northern Mexico may have produced 1.5 million boxes of apples so far this year, but that bounty hasn’t protected local growers from “coyotes,” or unscrupulous middlemen, a local official said, according to local website vanguardia.com.mx.

Small apple producers in northern Mexico sometimes go unpaid by "coyotes."

Not only do the coyotes buy the boxes at a low price, but they also on occasion fail to pay at all, said Mayor Ernesto Valdés Cepeda.

What’s more, the growers also face a lack of marketing for their product, he added.

Growers in the northern state of Coahuila have harvested 1.5 million boxes of apples so far, the website said, and some cooler, higher areas are still being harvested, the newspaper reported.

To aid growers, city government will help them market the apples and obtain economic resources, Valdés said, according to the website. Some growers have sales contracts with commercial chains in Coahuila and throughout Mexico.  It will also help growers, especially small ones, avoid the unscrupulous middlemen, the website said.

Photo: Héctor García/Vanguardia

Source: wwww.freshfruitportal.com