The WUSATA Mexico Consumer Oriented Outbound Trade Mission took place in Mexico City and Monterrey from December 5th – 9th , 2022. These activities included logistics arrangements and meetings scheduled with potential buyers from both cities such as supermarkets, importers, distributors, and foodservice institutions. Additionally, a market briefing was provided by the Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) in Mexico City and Monterrey as well as an imports seminar. 2 tabletops were coordinated in Mexico City and other 2 in Monterrey where U.S companies were able to meet with different importers and showcase their products.
A total of thirteen companies attended the Outbound Trade Mission coordinated by the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the California State Department of Agriculture.
A total of 192 meetings were conducted during the mission with 45 different importers, retailers and distributors in Mexico City and Monterrey averaging 15 meetings per company.
Additionally, 6 buyers from Central/South America were flown to the mission in Mexico City and 4 Mexican regional buyers were flown to Monterrey in order to meet with the delegation.
NuChef previously participated with Imalinx in 2016, in the Idaho Potato Commission project, “Blogger Harvest Tour”. Since its beginning in 2004. then the NuChef community has grown significantly.
Imalinx decided to collaborate with them to create an activity in order to position the Idaho Potatoes in the market, the activity consisted of two given workshops where people could cook using Idaho Potatoes, the first one focused on housewives early in the morning and the second one for executives in the afternoon.
The menu created was:
As a gift, participants received fresh Idaho Potatoes at the end of the workshop. The potatoes used were sponsored by Grupo Dispersa.
The workshops had 36 participants, who got involved in learning more about ways to cook with Idaho Potatoes and seeing the results of the workshop they shared their experience in their social networks.
In 2017 Zespri decided to create a geolocation campaign in Waze, the 1st ranked app in Latin America, above Google Maps and Foursquare, with more than 20 million unique users.
The main objectives of the campaign were to increase the recognition of the Zespri brand by 25% and Sun Gold kiwi by 13%, increase the market presence by 25% and facilitate the location of the product.
The campaign lasted a month and Waze users received a notification every time they passed near a supermarket that had Zespri kiwifruit for sale. The program was accompanied by content in digital and social media and on its website. Also with printings at points of sale.
The project resulted in 196 thousand navigations to locate Zespri kiwifruit in supermarkets and more than 118 thousand saved locations. Market expansion to 4 new cities in the Mexican Republic and 3 new supermarket chains in Latin America. This campaign has been a success story on Google for new categories.
The participants were 15 stores of La Torre in Guatemala, 15 Super Selectos stores and 15 Walmart stores in El Salvador. Training and practices were carried out to encourage the inclusion of 2 new varieties of potatoes, the Red Potato and the Purple Potato of Idaho.
Potato Idaho sales at participating stores increased 50%.
As part of the consumer public relations program of the Idaho Potato Commission, Imalinx contacted a group of international bloggers to travel to Idaho and live the experience of knowing the entire process that the Idaho Potatoes go through to reach the consumer table.
The publications of all participants talked about the benefits, the way of harvest, the added value, recipes and the experience lived in Idaho.
The group was made up of bloggers focused on food from Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico.
Formed by Chef Citlali Huerta and Hussein Cárdenas of the TV Azteca program called “Con ganas” (with willingness) in the northern region of Mexico. With more than 3,000 followers on Facebook. Additionally, the Chef also published in her personal account with more than 2,000 followers.
With more than 14,790 followers on Instagram, 5,500 followers on Facebook and 2,000 on Twitter. The author, Jorge Chanis made publications using the hashtag #RicasPapasDeIdaho.
Mara Corado Valls, the owner of NuChef, with more than 3,000 followers on Instagram and Twitter and approximately 1,000 followers on Facebook.
An account with more than 5,700 followers on Facebook, 4,297 on Twitter and 3,065 on Instagram. He published the best moments of the experience and some with content focused on the Idaho Potato harvest.
At the end of the project, the 4 bloggers totaled 73 posts in the 3 social networks. Approximately 55,000 people were reached, and the posts generated traffic to our Idaho Potato Fan Page on Facebook.