McAllen, Texas — The #1 Produce Port in the United States

The numbers are hard to argue with: 65% of all US produce imports from Mexico enter through a single region in South Texas. Not Los Angeles. Not Nogales. Not Laredo. McAllen.

Anchored by the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge and supported by a dense ecosystem of cold storage, customs brokers, freight forwarders, and terminal markets, the McAllen corridor is the undisputed capital of US produce importing. If you're buying tomatoes, limes, peppers, avocados, or cucumbers from Mexico, they almost certainly came through here.

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The Numbers at a Glance

• 65% of all US produce imports from Mexico cross through the Pharr port of entry
• $47 billion in total annual trade processed at the Pharr-Reynosa bridge
• ~6,000 commercial trucks cross the Pharr bridge daily on average
• 1.2 million+ commercial trucks per year and growing
• 3rd largest port in Texas for trade with Mexico
• 7th largest land port of entry in the United States by trade value
• 90+ produce businesses operating at the McAllen Produce Terminal Market alone

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Why Pharr, and Not Somewhere Else?

The short answer: infrastructure built specifically around perishables.

In 2015, a superhighway connecting western Mexico's major growing regions — Sinaloa, Sonora, Jalisco — directly to Reynosa/Pharr was completed. That single road project dramatically shortened transit times from Mexico's interior and redirected significant produce volume toward the Pharr crossing. The bridge was ready for it.

The Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge is the only full-service commercial crossing in Hidalgo County and the only one specifically designed for produce logistics. It's part of the FAST (Free and Secure Trade) program, it has dedicated inspection lanes, and it's connected directly to the Pharr Produce District — a 100-acre city-built logistics zone with cold storage facilities positioned to receive product the moment it clears customs.

The result: consistently the fastest commercial crossing times in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

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The Cold Chain Infrastructure

McAllen doesn't just move produce — it stores and conditions it. The Military Highway corridor running through McAllen and into Pharr is home to one of the densest concentrations of cold storage in North America.

Lineage Logistics operates two major facilities in McAllen:

• West Military: 234,543 sq ft of temperature-controlled space with cross-docking, food processing, and around-the-clock operations
• South Ware: 222,561 sq ft supporting fresh, refrigerated, and frozen imports with onsite USDA inspection services

In December 2025, a new $8 million cold storage project — Mega Produce Cold Storage Warehouse — was filed along Military Highway, adding 30,783 sq ft of refrigerated warehouse space to an already dense corridor.

Keystone Cold, located two miles from the Pharr bridge, provides independent third-party cold storage for importers of all sizes bringing fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico.

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McAllen Produce Terminal Market

At the center of the local ecosystem is the McAllen Produce Terminal Market — a 42-acre facility on McAllen's south side, 3.5 miles from the international bridge.

• 294,000 sq ft of warehouse space across five buildings
• 90+ businesses operating on-site, most focused on importing and distributing fruits and vegetables
• 200+ trucks per day moving through the terminal gates
• Warehouse space available from 1,400 to 4,200 sq ft for importers needing a local base

This is where the trade happens. Brokers, importers, and distributors are concentrated here — many of them moving the same product that crossed the Pharr bridge hours earlier.

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Infrastructure Investment Continues

The region is not standing still. In February 2026, the City of Pharr secured $3.52 million in federal funding for the BOLT Project (Bridge Operations & Logistics Transformation) — a series of infrastructure upgrades to improve traffic flow, inspection efficiency, and public safety at the crossing.

The Anzalduas International Bridge — owned jointly by McAllen, Mission, and Hidalgo — is also undergoing a commercial expansion expected to add 1,200 to 2,000 trucks per day once complete. While Anzalduas will focus on dry goods, the expansion relieves pressure on Pharr and improves overall corridor throughput.

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What This Means for Produce Importers

If you import produce from Mexico, McAllen is not optional — it's the center of gravity. The top US importers of Persian limes, Roma tomatoes, peppers, avocados, and other high-volume commodities run their operations through this corridor.

Knowing who is crossing what, how often, and with which Mexican suppliers is what separates reactive importers from ones who can negotiate from a position of knowledge.

That's exactly the data ProduceTradeIQ tracks — shipment by shipment, importer by importer, border crossing by border crossing.

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Want to see who the top importers are crossing through Pharr right now? Explore the data on ProduceTradeIQ