The Western United States Agricultural Trade Association (WUSATA), in conjunction with the Idaho and Oregon Departments of Agriculture and Imalinx, scheduled a trade mission to these states with a delegation of Mexican buyers from the ingredient and foodservice industry to meet new suppliers of grains, seeds, processed products and value-added products.
Imalinx recruited buyers who had one-on-one meetings with 15 companies to develop new business, visits to some of their plants and also visits to supermarkets for end consumers and foodservice where they were able to see new product trends and food and beverage presentations.
“Thank you for the invitation to this trade mission. We have a lot of potential with new products such as khorasan and teff. We must follow up with the companies as necessary to be able to enhance the results of new business opportunities.” Added Value Buyer
As part of the WUSATA program for Mexico in 2024, an inbound trade mission focused on agricultural products was coordinated, which was led by Imalinx-Mexico, acting as the representative in the country. The mission took place from July 7 to 12, 2024.
The main objective of this trade mission was to educate suppliers from the western United States about the Mexican market. Attendees had the opportunity to meet key contacts within the Mexican import industry and establish one-on-one relationships. Trade visits included tours of the facilities and fields of American companies. The final delegation consisted of five Mexican importers from different regions of Mexico. They met with ten suppliers and visited seven packing plants.
Key Points:
A success story of a great opportunity for six Mexican buyers (Comercializadora Mexport, Casa Ley, Grupo Cimarron, Hanseatik, Good Express and Dualmex) where, through the support of WUSATA, they traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend the SIAL America’s first show edition and the Pizza Expo show with the objective of increasing their portfolio.
Our buyers had one-on-one meetings with more than 28 suppliers from the Western United States looking to enter the Mexican market. These meetings took place inside and outside the SIAL America show and they as well had the opportunity to visit 3 American supermarkets to learn more about products and current trends in the United States.
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.
As part of the “Taste of the West” campaign, and with the challenge to communicate where to buy the products to consumers Wusata had communication through Walmart and HEB channels.
The campaign was achieved through digital advertising in both chains, a Landing page was created with all the products from the promotion, also banners on website and offsite communication (materials through social media). 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.
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
In October 2019, Real California Milk held the second edition of the California Dairy Products Contest where 8 teams competed for a trip to Napa, California. The Food & Wine team showed by Chef Antonio Garrido and Chef Mariana Rojas surprised the jury with their dishes and became winners of the Training in Trends and handling of dairy products, based at the CIA, Copia in Napa, California.
In January 2020, the chefs of Food & Wine Table and Chef Abraham Alanis of Laben Foodservice travel to California to receive the training. During the trip, the chefs visited Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese where they participated in a Culinary Trends Workshop 2020 presented by CIA executive chefs, Brad Barnes & Barbara Alexander who also offered a culinary and tasting experience with their own recipes made with California dairy products.
They had a tour in the Farmstead Cheese, to learn about the quality processes of Real California Milk and the animal care, one of the main characteristics of Real California Milk dairy products. The last day the chefs had the experience of cooking at the CIA facilities, Copy being part of multiculturalism reflected in the dishes of chefs from different parts of the world.
Antonio Garrido, Mariana Rojas, and Abraham Lanis went back home with the knowledge and dairy training to be implemented in their kitchens and processes in order to offer quality and flavor in their recipes.
Carried out the commercial mission of buyers from Mexico, Colombia and, Chile for value added products at Washington and California with the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association.
Participants had the opportunity to meet with more than 30 suppliers from the region with the objective of establishing business relationships.
Imalinx awarded the prize to the first place of the annual California Raisin Baking Contest in Mexico, Carlos Guido traveled to California accompanied by Sandra Corona, the product development manager of El Globo, the Mexico’s largest bakery.
Both had the opportunity to get involved with the process of harvesting California Raisin, learned the industry history, learned about the high standards of cultivation and packaging processes, which result in high quality products.
Between the bakery contest and his training in California, Carlos developed a total of 10 different products with the potential to be marketed.
El Globo had interest in knowing more about product availability during the year, to introduce at least 3 new products to the market in different seasons.
From June 8th to 14th, a trip to California was made with winners of the bakery contest from different countries such as Japan, China, Germany and Mexico.
For this year, Mexico invited the first-place winner of the Sal y Dulce Artesanos bakery and the owner of the Da Silva bakery, chef Eduardo Da Silva as brand ambassador to the country.
During this trip, the participants had a seminar on bakery trends at the Culinary Institute of America given by chef Robert Jörin. They also prepared their winning recipe at the CIA and they presented it to the California Raisins packers at a dinner party.
The group also visited the fields and factories of the raisins to observe more closely the process of harvesting California Raisins and what makes them unique.
At the beginning of September, the winners of the first California Raisins Bakery Contest in Mexico had the opportunity to attend the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California along with a group of winning bakers and chefs from Asia and Europe.
Cultivation fields were visited, grapes were harvested and packing plants were visited.
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.