🌶New Mexico's green chile season is in full swing !
This 2021 image provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows a truckload of green chiles waiting to be inspected at the port of entry at Columbus, N.M. Border authorities said Monday, Sept. 12, 2022, that they are assigning more agricultural specialists to the port to handle the increase in chile imports.
As part of “Operation Hot Chile,” Jimenez said agricultural inspectors are being assigned to Columbus from other locations to help with the increased traffic.The inspectors will process around 100 chile shipments a day during the busiest part of the season. The Mexican import season is busiest between September and October, but can stretch as late as mid-December. Last year, they handled just under 11,000 shipments of red and green peppers from Mexico.
The state's chile harvest starts in late July, but gets cranking in August. Day spent Monday taste testing green chile cheeseburgers at the New Mexico State Fair while still recovering from the annual chile festival in Hatch, New Mexico, just a week ago where he talked to people from New York, Kansas and even Hawaii who flew in to get their fix.“As an industry, we’re in a unique place where demand is the highest it's ever been and it’s continuing to go up every year,” he said.