FISHEEIES AND MAKKET FOR FISHERY PRODUCTS IF MEXICO, ETC. 



Tons. 



March, 1921 10 



April, 1921 8 



May,1921 5 



June, 1921 3 



October, 1920 8 



November, 1920 6 



December, 1920 2 



January, 1921 2 



February, 1921 3 



Limited quantities of canned salmon, sardines, and oysters are 

 imported from the United States, but the sales are relatively small. 

 The prices to the consumers are about 100 per cent higher than in the 

 United States. There are a few Spanish mackerel on the market, 

 but practically all the canned sea food used here is imported from the 

 United States. There is no reexport of imported products, due to 

 the unfavorable location of this port as a distributing center for 

 more than a local territory. 



The only canned product arriving here from countries other than 

 the United States is an occasional shipment of Spanish sardines 

 packed in oil. If the European product could compete with the 

 American packed goods in the matter of price, it is believed that the 

 former would be preferred by the natives, owing to the traditional 

 taste of the Latin race for highly spiced food. Since the outbreak of 

 the World War the unfavorable transportation facilities have pre- 

 cluded the possibility of bringing European goods to any extent to 

 this part of Mexico. However, with the establishment of steamship 

 service between European ports and the west coast of Mexico, which 

 will soon be accomplished, the market here for many articles is certain 

 to be lost to the American exporter. 



There is little likelihood of there ever being a considerable market 

 in this consular district for American packed sea food of any kind, in- 

 asmuch as most of the district can be served with fresh fish from 

 Guaymas. Advertising campaigns and artificial stimulants could 

 help but little to develop the market. Fresh fish is abundant most 

 of the year, and the canned products from abroad are almost pro- 

 hibitive in price except to people of means. The masses can not 

 afford canned sea food. . If the mines are ever reopened, there will 

 be a limited market for canned goods among the mming population, 

 where fresh fish and fresh fruit can not be delivered. 



MEXICALI. 



[By Walter F. Boyle, consul, August 17, 1921.] 



There are no local fishery products in this district. At one time a 

 group of Americans tried to exploit the fishing groimds at the head 

 of the Gulf of California, reputedly very prolific. They employed 

 a power boat from the headwaters of the gulf to La Bomba on the 

 Colorado River, and thence shipped by motor truck to Mexicali, 

 nearly a hundred miles, over very indifferent roads. The trans- 

 portation charges proved too onerous, and the enterprise was aban- 

 doned. Several attempts have been made to exploit the fish in the 

 Laguna Salada, some 20 miles from Mexicali, solely for the purpose 

 of obtaining fertilizers, but this too has been abandoned. This 

 shallow lake at times goes dry because of evaporation in a rainless 

 valley. All commercial fishing has been with nets used as seines. 

 The effort to bring fish from the Gulf of Colorado was directed to 

 packing in ice, while the fish caught for fertilizer in the Laguna Salada 



