2024 was the first season in which Imalinx coordinated promotional activities for California grapes. Part of the program targeted major Club retailers, including Costco and Sam’s Club. At Costco, nationwide sampling events were held in 42 stores on November 14th, 15th, and 16th, with additional promotions in 16 top-performing locations on November 23rd. These events featured informational one-pagers highlighting the benefits of California grapes.
Meanwhile, Sam’s Club launched a digital campaign supported by in-store banners across 20 locations in key cities such as Mexico City, Monterrey, and Querétaro from November 14th to 20th. The digital effort, which includes e-commerce and app-based promotions, runs until November 30th, with sales reports to follow.
We had an approach with Pinche Gringo BBQ through the MLB event organized by the Agricultural Trade Office in Mexico city.
It is a chain with 8 restaurants in Mexico City. We saw a great opportunity to participate by integrating Idaho potatoes into some of their recipes and considering different types of support such as IPC-branded materials, uniforms, etc.
We committed to providing them with gradual support once the budget is finalized. Dubacano is the importer that delivers the potatoes to them on a weekly basis.
| Load | Weight in kg | Weight in lbs |
| Weekly load: 18 sacks | 405 | 891 |
| Monthly load: 72 sacks | 1,620 | 3,564 |
| Annual load: 864 sacks | 19,440 | 42,768 |
We have a Spuddy Buddy in LED that we will provide as part of IPC’s support materials.
All of these efforts will help us gain presence and raise brand awareness among their restaurant attendees.
They are very excited to work together to achieve the expected results for both parties.
California Raisins actively participated in Expo Mexipan 2024, the most important bakery industry event in Mexico, which gathered processors, distributors, and consumers from across the country. This was a unique opportunity to strengthen the presence of California Raisins in the Mexican market and position them as a premium choice in bakery and pastry products.
During the event, the California Raisins team held meetings with over 50 processors, who showed significant interest in incorporating California Raisins into their products. Additionally, we engaged with more than 100 consumers, who provided positive feedback and expressed their preference for the taste and quality of our raisins.
On Tuesday, July 23rd, the Delizie della Burrata event took place in Cuernavaca, Morelos. An event designed to bring the best quality of fresh cheeses to the door of the foodservice sector in the eternal spring city. Di Stefano cheeses are made with 100% cow’s milk from California in the artisan style and with the original Italian recipe.
Together with our distributor Gennaro Riccio we presented the Di Stefano brand, its history and trajectory. Gennaro gave us a training on the uses to learn more about each product, its flavors, versatility and quality; delighting us from classic recipes to very creative innovations.
We had 15 attendees from 9 different companies, all of them were able to learn, taste and ask questions. They took away samples and a gift kit, as well as many ideas to apply everything they learned!
Sunmaid Growers of California listed 12 SKUs in the Mexican Market delivering the first purchase order for 800 cases with an estimated export value of 28,000 USD in March 2024 and available to Mexican consumer on April 1st, 2024. Raisin Administrative Committee provided industry-wide consultations during 2023 providing market information, importers contacts and facilitating communication for the first contact.
The listing process into the country took over one year and RAC was able to provide industry information to Mexican Retailer “La Comer” with 15% national market share with 13 high-end retail stores named “City Market”, where the product will be immediately made available, to eventually distribute in the rest of 72 stores with potential sales of 200,000 USD for full distribution in this retail chain, with the potential to increase volume once other retailers list the product portfolio in 2024.
Product listing will be complemented by a generic Retail Marketing campaign managed by RAC and it is expected that this will be the first step to develop raisin individual packs as a snack category in Mexico that has been a part of the U.S. Culture for many years, opening the way for more uses of California Raisins in that country.
As part of the 2023 program, SUSTA organized a trade mission to Houston. Texas and Atlanta, Georgia for 4 Mexican buyers to meet with nearly 40 companies from the Southern United States that are members of SUSTA (Southern U.S. Agricultural Trade Association) to develop commercial opportunities between both countries.
The buyers traveled to both cities being received by the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Georgia Department of Agriculture, coordinating meetings between buyers and sellers in a Table-top format, combined with visits to supermarket stores and other suppliers. Trade leads were generated that we hope will result in sales in the near future.
Espacio Food and Service is the most important food show in Chile. It was held from September 27th to 29th in Santiago de Chile, Chile where the key contacts of the industry get together to share trends of products, services, and technologies.
California Milk took part for the first time in the show to explore the Chilean market and its potential on the dairy industry. This time CMAB participated in the US Pavilion, giving us an excellent booth location.
During our time in Chile, we visited the main supermarkets in the country to know the varieties available, store formats, and start evaluating business development opportunities.
In the show California Milk found interest of over 100 importers, distributors, and restaurants specifically for the cheese category like cream cheese, mozzarella, cheddar, and artisan cheeses. Also, we started to develop relationships with at least 5 key contacts of the retail, foodservice and brand reps.
“We value your visit to know and evaluate Chile. We hope to move forward and be able to have many Real California Milk products in Chile and South America. The response of the contacts after the show has been very positive and encouraging. We’ve already had 5 meetings.” -Renato Poblete, Deli Casei
This year the Idaho Potato Commission participated in the 37th edition of Abastur from August 31 to September 2, 2022, as an exhibitor. Abastur is the largest business platform in Latin America, where IPC successfully had contact with the most important suppliers and buyers for the foodservice industry.
On the 3-day exhibition, more than 80 key leads from the industry were generated at the Idaho Potato Commission booth, thus achieving new business opportunities. Likewise, more than 300 tasting samples were offered with the objective that the event’s attendants could enjoy the authentic flavor of Idaho potatoes.
The California Milk Advisory Board once again participated in the largest Expo for Supermarkets in LATAM, Expo ANTAD. A leading professional event for the Retail, Hotel and Restaurant sector in the food industry supply chain, took place May 17-19 in Guadalajara.
It was an event focused on generating business meetings, publicizing the attributes and benefits of California Dairy Products, as well as the support we provide in marketing and communication matters.
We presented different brands of artisan cheeses such as Point Reyes, Sierra Nevada, Fiscalini, Vintage, Bellwether and Nicasio Valley.
Bob Leonard, Vice President of Pacific Cheese, presented the California Select Farms brand cheeses and we also prepared pizzas as part of the tasting activity throughout the 3 days of the expo.
Thanks to the event, we generated leads, we were able to introduce the full range of Vintage cheeses in the Mexican market and generate business opportunities for specialty products.
California Raisins was in charge of organizing the forum “Innovation in bakery for retail”. For the first time, California Raisins introduced an innovative online forum format, attended by numerous VIP guests, moderated by Darinel Becerra, editorial director and partner of Retailers.mx, and led by Marc Misseri, independent chef and consultant, with a 40-year trajectory in gastronomy, being the creator of La Balance in Mexico and serving as Innovation Director at El Globo until the end of 2021.
One of the theme lines of the event was that “innovation is going back to the basics with iconic products from the world’s bakery, with re-studied formulas aligned to the new demands of the consumer”, as Marc Misseri Bastide pointed out, and at the same time, he exposed the concept of “reasoned and reasonable abundance, since we are making better nutritional products every time; but in retail, sometimes we don’t give them the significance they deserve”.