On December 15, an online seminar was held by Chef Irving Quiroz with a live demo of two seasonal recipes sweetened through California raisins. During the 90-minute session, Chef Irving Quiroz highlighted the natural attributes of raisins, how to incorporate them into seasonal products, and shared about his experience in the fields of Fresno, California when he learned about how are raisins made.
The recipes that Chef Irving developed were a traditional Stollen and a Kouglof, a specialty of German origin whose main characteristic is the “mountain” style shape. The digital recipe book was available to download for each of the registered participants.
The webinar had a total of 527 people registered, and 49% total attendance with 351 users connected. At the same time, it was broadcasted via Facebook with a total of 4,700 views.
The event had an excellent response from the Pasitas de California community, the save the date communication was published on social networks resulting in 2,140 people reached from different areas, mainly Mexico City, Monterrey, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and even some cities in Europe.
Chef Efrén Ríos, better known as Ziggy, has been ambassador of Real California Milk since 2018 and has been a spokesperson at many gastronomic events and product workshops. His most recent project comes under the name of Coma Pizza, an innovative pizzeria concept that offers an experience in every slice. In December 2020, Real California Milk visited the restaurant to record videos in collaboration with Chef Ziggy.
The videos have the main objective of communicating the different varieties of cheeses with the Real California seal, in addition to awakening palates in anyone who views the video through digital channels.
“When we talk about pizza, we don’t just talk about toppings or ingredients, we talk about a history, the technique, times of the dough maturation or fermentation and a selection of products with the highest quality.”
Efrén Ríos Ríos, winner of the 2019 Mexican Pizza Championship with the title of “Best Pizza Maker in Mexico 2019”. He has represented Mexico twice at the World Pizza Championship in Italy.
Watch video on our Youtube channel:
During the month of December, Imalinx coordinated a program with 5 renowned chefs from mexico who had the opportunity to cook with dried fruits, dairy and fresh products.
With the aim of promoting the consumption of products such as yellow onions, raisins, California cheese and butter during the holiday season, Imalinx with the support of Beto Lanz coordinatedthis program with 5 renowned chefs across Mexico.
Participating Chefs: Pablo Salas, Bianca Castro, Andrea Martínez, Juan Emilio Villaseñor and Christian González, who developed easy-to-replicate recipes using the previously mentioned ingredients as the star ingredient.
Each of the recipes were published on the Chef’s own digital channels and replicated on the social networks of the brand in order to amplify the reach.
Pablo Salas, from the Amaranta Restaurant, developed a recipe of NY Sliders with yellow onion.
Bianca Castro. Biscottis Pastry baked a total of 3 recipes with California raisin butter, as well as a yellow onion crumble.
Andrea Martinez, from Casa Liebre prepared 2 recipes with California cheese and butter and a pork rind in Raisin Adobo. Also a Pasta made by yellow onion
Juan Emilio Villaseñor, from La Cocinoteca presents us with a recipe for mole with raisins, a butter with garlic and yellow onion stuffed with Cod.
Christian González from Boulangerie Amasijo, innovated by creating a raisin chamoy and a crisp shortbread based on California butter.
Luis Serdio from Corazón de Pollo, with a unique concept of gourmet rotisserie offered a limited edition Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and Mac&Cheese box with California cheeses.
As part of the “Taste of the West” campaign, whose objective was to promote products from the West of the United States, Wusata had communication through Walmart and HEB channels. The challenge of this project was to find a way to communicate the campaign to the consumer in a forceful and attractive way without being able to count on tastings or in-person events.
The campaign was achieved through the portals and digital advertising options of the participating chains. In both chains, a Landing page was created with all the products that were supported in the promotion and banners on the website that directed to the campaign. In addition to having offsite communication, with materials that circulated through social networks and web page inviting target consumers. There was a total of 1103% growth in visits compared to the season without promotion and more than 9,600 interactions with consumers on the banners.
IPC had the initiative to promote Idaho Potatoes as a healthy carbohydrate since one of the biggest challenges of the account is the belief that carbohydrates affect in a diet, so, through athletes such as Paola Longoria, Charlie Sarmiento and Oso Negro a “good carbohydrate” campaign was launched.
The biggest challenge was to find the athletes and spokesperson for the campaign, since they had to show a good image and be an example for consumers. We managed to contact Paola Longoria, one of the best racquetball players in the world, with 334 ,000 followers on Instagram, Paola has been talking about the IPC for 3 months and has made recipes, routines, and publications with more than 1700 likes about the benefits of potatoes. Charlie Sarmiento has carried publicity on his networks and has given talks on health and sports with more than 480 reproductions. While IPC became an official sponsor of the Ultra Marathon “Black Bear” with whom he will have advertising throughout 2021 and until the race in January 2022 with banners of the account in training and advertising on social networks of the race.
Costco and the California Milk Advisory Board created alliances to promote two pizzas in Service Deli area, cheese and pepperoni, where he origin of the cheese was promoted accompanied with retail publications in Facebook and Contacto magazine, as well as in the Real California Milk social media.
The promotion was executed in a month, from October 28th to November 22nd, where California Milk supported for the first time Costco Service Deli during their annual special promotion with pizzas. During this month Costco sold around 64,493 units nationwide. This is 135% of sales increase vs the same promotion in 2019. With Costco’s Facebook post 135,606 people was reached, and a total of 350,000 magazines printed.
On behalf of the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association (WUSATA) and coordinated by Beto Lanz 15 companies participated in the first recipe program in Mexico with the main objective of promoting value-added food and beverage products in the Mexican gastronomic industry.
The chefs who participated were Chef Pablo Salas, from Amaranta Restaurant; Josefina Santa Cruz, from Sesame; Chuy Elizondo, from Benell; Oscar Herrera, from Flor de Nogal; and Bianca Castro, from Biscottis Bakery. The companies that participated in this first recipe program were Agropur, Northwest Hazelnuts, Farmer’s Rice, Fresh Nature Foods, Barber’s food, Limoneira, Smile Foods, Royal Ridge, Shining Ocean, Pure palms, Jacey Cakes, Colorado Potatoes, Traina Foods, Bow & Arrow and Sadaf Foods.
Each company selected one chef to received the ingredients . Among those products were surimi, dried apricots, hazelnuts, fresh green garbanzo beans, potatoes, and gouda cheese. Each product with a different flavor and origin.
The recipes developed were published on the Chefs’ social networks and reposted on the official WUSATA social media pages, resulting in + 2, 218, 290 people reached and 1, 028, 900 views.
At the end of this project, a digital recipe book was developed now available in: https://issuu.com/home/published/taste_of_the_west_original
The U.S Southern Agricultural Trade Association with the help of imalinx coordinated the first virtual business mission in Mexico where 16 exporters signed up for digital business meetings with key contacts from the food and beverage industry with the objective of exploring new business opportunities for the Mexican market in the mid and long term.
Due to the COVID contingency, SUSTA and Imalinx had to migrate the in-person trade mission originally scheduled for Houston and Atlanta to a digital format that helped expand the number of registered buyers and exporters. Through the Zoom platform, Imalinx offered a virtual seminar to the 16 exporting companies talking about Mexico’s country overview, business situation, new labeling regulation and recommendations for the sessions. Followed by appointment coordination, sample logistics and follow-up after the event with exporters and buyers.
A total of 53 appointments were confirmed and divided in two blocks. The first was for categories of general snacks and groceries, the second for special categories such as plant proteins, cocktails, craft beer, among others. All contacts received pre-event samples to make products available during meetings, This facilitated the communication, immediate feedback and preparation of buyers for appointments.
Walter Brooks of Brooksmade Gourmet Foods
“I really looked forward to it and it was great. We will definitely come back and let you know if we could use your help in the future with these relationships”.
Jaime Fuentes de Brand Rep’s Cancun
“They were quite interested in our brokerage services. Likewise, their proposal has already been sent to each one so that, if accepted, they can start representing them in Mexico and be able to introduce their products to the markets they indicate us”.
WUSATA conducted a virtual trade mission between exporters between the states of Idaho, Oregon and Mexican Importers, with the aim of developing business relationships. Appointments were made between leading exporters and distributors and importers in Mexico in both, the retail and wholesale sectors.
This activity was an alternative to traditional trade missions that have been face-to-face. There were significant efficiencies in resources, budgets and time. Activities were programmed in anticipation so that the yellow onion season of Idaho and Eastern Oregon could begin strongly.
This new mode of trade mission proved to be very practical since from the comfort of the participant’s home of office. Strong and long lasting ties can be formed while staying safe at the same time.
The month of August began with two online seminars in collaboration with the Mexican Bakers Guild (COMEPAN), a project created by Chefs and Bakers: Irving Quiroz, Bernardo Flores, Kenny Kuri and Carlos Ramírez Roure. The event was sponsored by Real California Milk, California Raisins, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Monterrey Office.
The invitation was open to the general public with the aim of captivating enthusiasts for the bakery that could later be part of the guild itself. The Seminar was carried out on two dates; August 12 for Mexico City and August 13 for Monterrey, achieving a total record of 3,081 people who connected from Mexico, the United States, Spain and Colombia.
The first date was covered with the participation of Kenny Kuri and Carlos Ramírez Roure who produce Cocoa Bread with pasitas, Vienna Bread, Rye Bread and Peasant Bread. On the other hand, Bernardo Flores and Irving Quiroz showed the techniques For achieving a low fermentation Ciabatta, Marbling Box Bread, Sourdough with Oat Atole and Dark Chocolate Babka.
View stream:
Results.
The Mexican Bakers Guild is a meeting point for all bakery enthusiasts, professionals and entrepreneurs in general who share the philosophy of the goodness of bread. A survey was conducted to explore the opinion and segments of attendees:
| Type of Industry | % |
| Consumer | 22% |
| Distributor | 1% |
| Foodservice | 5% |
| Other | 32% |
| Bakery | 40% |
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| What type of content would you like for future seminars? | % |
| Interviews | 0% |
| Explanation of ingredients | 7% |
| Recipes | 18% |
| Baking techniques | 70% |
| Tips | 5% |