Sean Mattson - Special to the Express-News

TEQUILA, Mexico � Around the time the millennium turned, armed guards protected agave plantations from robbers. Such was the high price of the primary ingredient of Mexico's national firewater.

These days there's so much agave azul that farmers are selling it well below cost � if they're lucky enough to find a buyer at all.

"I waited seven years for this," said Victoriano P�rez, 67, referring to the time it takes for agave to mature.
"I'd rather let it rot" than sell it for a quarter of his cost, he said. And rot it will.

Some 1.5 million metric tons of ripe agave came onto the market in 2007 and the tequila industry will use only half of it. A similar surplus is expected in 2008.

Tequila makers aren't complaining, of course, but the thousands of farmers who grow agave are seeing red.

Read complete article - Tequila is Causing Headaches


Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/sto...60011c.html?npc