The National Onion Association and other produce groups praised the U.S. State Department’s first-ever denial of Mexico’s request for Colorado River water as a step toward leveling the playing field.

On March 20 the department denied a request by Mexico for a special channel to deliver Colorado River water to Tijuana.

“Mexico’s continued shortfalls in its water deliveries under the 1944 water-sharing treaty are decimating American agriculture — particularly farmers in the Rio Grande valley,” the department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in a post on X.

A 1944 treaty mandates equitable water sharing between the countries. Mexico’s persistent non-compliance over the years — based on drought claims even as the country expanded water storage infrastructure — enabled farmers to increase production of water-intensive crops including onions, according to an association news release.

NOA joined the Texas International Produce Association and Texas Citrus Mutual in supporting the U.S. decision to withhold water allocations from Mexico.

“The consequences of Mexico’s water mismanagement are starkly evident in the United States, with the complete collapse of the Texas sugar cane industry serving as a poignant example,” according to the release.

“Mexico’s blatant disregard for U.S. water rights under the 1944 treaty should be a national outrage,” said Greg Yielding, NOA executive vice president and chief executive. “Mexico’s surge in onion exports to America is undercutting prices for American growers. If this continues unchecked, which agricultural sector will be next to collapse? This can and will be devastating for American farmers.”

If Mexico had been adhering to the treaty, “they wouldn’t be exporting all these onions that they are exporting into the U.S. at prices less than the cost of (U.S.) production,” he said in an interview. He questioned Mexico’s countrywide drought claims, especially since conditions are the same across the U.S. border.

He and representatives of the Texas group met with State Department officials a year ago and were told a wait-and-see approach was needed since Mexico’s water delivery requirement was based on a five-year average that at the time had two years left.

“We have been making this an issue” in Washington, D.C., Yielding said. The new presidential administration “is going to force Mexico to make a decision.”

By using water that should belong to Texas, the Mexican onion industry is competing unfairly with onion growers in that state and some 18 other U.S. states, according to the release.

“We are affected by this,” Grant Kitamura, an owner and manager at onion packer-shipper Baker & Murakami Produce in Ontario, Ore., told Capital Press. “There has been a steady increase of imports from Mexico over the years, and that has taken away some of our market share.”

Northwest onion producers, now wrapping up marketing season, have been impacted by Mexico onions entering the U.S. since December and January, he said. If Mexican producers are using water they shouldn’t, “the effects are even worse. We should take our water right back. We need to have that agreement stand up.”

“This is the first time we actually have felt our State Department’s support on this issue,” Texas Citrus Mutual president Dale Murden said in the release. “For too long we have watched our neighbors on the Colorado River bend over backward to accommodate treaty responsibilities annually, only to see Mexico take advantage of the U.S.”

“We have consistently advocated for fairness and equal treatment,” Texas International Produce Association president Dante Galeazzi said. The move by the Trump administration “supports what is the very foundation of the treaty: reciprocity.”