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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hepatitis Scare Crushes Mexico Berry Business

Los Angeles Times

Mexican strawberry farmers are suspending their harvests and laying off thousands of workers as sales plummet due to a U.S. hepatitis scare linked to Mexican berries, growers and officials said Tuesday.

The Mexicans continued to insist that the hepatitis-A virus that recently sickened more than 100 U.S. schoolchildren and panicked thousands of parents did not originate south of the border. Instead, they say, the strawberries must have been contaminated when they were stored in San Diego.

However, Mexico’s $44 million strawberry export industry may be crippled for months because of the publicity. Supermarkets in the United States and Mexico alike have canceled purchases of Mexican strawberries.

Angry Mexican farmers, already suspicious of U.S. policies that they believe are intended to protect U.S. growers from competition, even suggested the hepatitis scare was a deliberate subterfuge by unnamed U.S. interests.

“We do not rule out that this is an act of sabotage to remove us from the market, an unfair trade practice,” strawberry growers from Baja California said in a letter to President Ernesto Zedillo printed in newspapers Tuesday.