STRVWBERRY IMPERIALISM 107 even perhaps the publicly-owned Ejido factories55 (p 24). The strawberry sector is almost totally dependent on export to the US. This export trade is entirely controlled by a handful of US firms. In 1973-74, firms with US capital accounted for 61 percent of fresh strawberry exports and 63 percent of frozen strawberry exports.4 The US firms handling the exports are not mere intermediaries. They are involved in control over production and processing as well. In fact, they can be described as "multinational firms . . . with very ramified business interests in the United States, Mexico, Europe and elsewhere" (p 27). The processing in" dustry is characterized bv considerable excess capacity, which strengthens the hands of monopolistic US firms in the export trade. The factories—even the most recently built ones—do not contain any facilities for diversification. To put it in a nutshell, the industry has grown in a chaotic and unplanned manner, and serves only to provide guaranteed high profits for American capital. Control over 'strawberry technology5 also rests entirely with US capital. To take a striking fact, even after more than 15 years of commercial strawberry growing, all the strawberry plants are those which originally came from the US. We learn that: "the chaotic growth of the industry in Zamora took place without any accurate knowledge of soil, water and climatic conditions55 (p 49). Domination by foreign capital extends to all aspects of the process of production of strawberry. The insecticides and pesticides come from Shell Co, Giba-Geigy, Roman and Haas, Bayer, Diamond Chemicals and Brand Chemicals—all American and European MNCs. The sprayers too come from Germany, Holland, Japan and US. All the machinery used in the processing sector is either imported or produced under licence from some MNC.5 When the crop is ready to be harvested, the representative (usually American) from the broker firm (invariably American) comes to the field to decide on the quantity and quality of fruit (to be harvested), packaging and cleaning, cooling and transportation. He also "decides when and how much to ship fresh and by implication when to start freezing operations. The decision ... is made in the US in accordance with US market conditions5' (p 52). The processing sector in the case of frozen strawberries is similarly controlled by US interests. The strawberry sector is highly competitive. It is also subject to frequent fluctuations. Export prices decline sharply, leading to sharp reduction in area cultivated or to deliberate destruction of the fruit in a desperate effort to stem the decline in prices.