MEXICO CITY — Mexican growers on Wednesday called a U.S. warning against certain types of their tomatoes unjust, saying it has brought exports to a halt and could cripple Mexico's $900 million industry.

Growers said their produce is subject to double the scrutiny that U.S. tomatoes face: inspected first by Mexican officials and then again at the border when crossing into the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to three types of raw tomatoes that has sickened 167 people in 17 U.S. states since mid-April. It has cleared imports from at least six countries — but not Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its tomato exports to the United States.

As a result, exports here have come to a halt.

"We can't sell a single box of tomatoes," said Jesús Macías, sales manager at the Productora Agrícola Industrial del Noreste in the border state of Baja California.

His farm normally ships up to 50,000 boxes of tomatoes a day to an importer in Chula Vista, Calif. — until it stopped buying his produce last week. Macías plans to give his 3,000 laborers an extra day off each week to cut costs as long as the slump continues.

Baja California began its harvest in April and would be the hardest-hit state if the U.S. salmonella scare continues to stem sales.

Macías said he used to sell 26-pound boxes of tomatoes for $15 in the U.S., but now must sell them in Mexico, where a glut of unexported tomatoes is flooding the market and pushing prices as low as $5 a box.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said 167 people have been identified as having salmonella with the same "genetic fingerprint." At least 23 have been hospitalized.

Salmonella is a bacteria that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.

U.S. health officials have presented no proof that the contaminated tomatoes are from Mexico, said Manuel Tarriba, head of the Sinaloa state Tomato Growers Association. No salmonella has been reported in Sinaloa state, Mexico's top tomato-producing region, he told Mexico's state news agency, Notimex, on Wednesday.

"Even if Mexico isn't the culprit, the industry has already been affected. We need to change that, because when you send an alarm to consumers, the first thing they do is stop buying," he said.




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