(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

Hon. José Calzada Rovirosa, Mexico's secretary of agriculture, livestock, rural development, fisheries and nutrition

Leaders from Arizona and Mexico recently gathered in Scottsdale for two days of annual talks about cross-border trade and economic development.

The event was put on by the Arizona-Mexico Commission, which has spent decades building relations with the border state of Sonora.

Hon. José Calzada Rovirosa, Mexico's secretary of agriculture, livestock, rural development, fisheries and nutrition, was a keynote speaker.

Arizona and Sonora can get the most from their farm products by investing in border infrastructure and developing a guest worker program, Calzada Rovirosa said. 

"We’re doing something like that with California," he said. "And we have done that a long time ago with Canada. And it has worked very good for both countries."

A former governor and senator, Calzada Rovirosa said Mexico is now the 12th largest producer of food in the world. And its main market is the United States, where it sold about $22 billion in agricultural products last year.