Carla Dominguez, with Fiesta Canning Co., left talks with Dr. Willis Fedio, associate professor and director of the Food Safety Laboratory at NMSU, right, chat during the annual Chile Convention at the Las Cruces Convention Center in Las Cruces, N.M., on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal)
​Nesto Martinez, left, and Guillermo Hernandez pick chile at a farm in New Mexico in 2021. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)
With the latest statistics showing that New Mexico's 2021 chile production dropped considerably from the previous year, the state's chile experts identified a primary — and familiar — reason. "Labor, labor, and more labor," said Travis Day, executive director of the New Mexico Chile Association. He spoke in an interview Tuesday from the foyer of the convention center in Las Cruces, which hosted this year's annual New Mexico Chile Conference held Feb. 6 and Feb. 7. "Our 2020 season was a lot better than 2021," said Day. While U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that in 2021 New Mexico's total agriculture production grew 5% from 2020 to $3.17 billion — with chile and pecan production ranking in the top two spots in the nation — New Mexico's chile production value dropped from $50.1 million in 2020 to $44.9 million in 2021. Notably, the state's chile production dropped from 65,600 tons in 2020 to 51,000 tons in 2021, a 22% decrease. New Mexico's chile production has fallen from a 2004 all-time high of 106,850 tons. With that production shortfall affecting the New Mexican chile industry, the buzz at this year's conference continues to be on a new chile variety, the New Mex Odyssey, a product of 10 years of selective breeding and field testing that has produced a green chile rugged enough for a fully mechanized harvest, bypassing the need for human labor.
Carla Dominguez, with Fiesta Canning Co., left talks with Dr. Willis Fedio, associate professor and director of the Food Safety Laboratory at NMSU, right, chat during the annual Chile Convention at the Las Cruces Convention Center in Las Cruces, N.M., on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (Chancey Bush/ Albuquerque Journal)
