Características de la competencia en el mercado hortícola estadounidense: el caso de la berenjena mexicana.

In the vegetable market of the USA takes place a dynamic competition between growers-packers from nations of very different development levels. The paper focuses on the Mexican eggplant exported to the USA. Basing on this study we could rethink some important concepts currently used in the research on this topic. Particularly, following Van Sickle and other scholars, I take the market share as competitiveness indicator and basing on them I try to determine the current positioning of the Mexican vegetables within the USA market, comparing also eggplant with other conspicuous vegetables exported from Mexico. This issue is explained by several factors, like technological innovations, performances, costs, marketing strate-gies, and, particularly, following the food safety regulations. This study confirms the hypothesis posited by authors like Friedland and Bonanno, who underly the global nature of the competition within the vegetable markets. Finally, basing on the study I suggest some reflections questioning the concept "international division of labor". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]