Jalisco no te rajes¡

By Luis Bringas

In the last ten years, the State of Jalisco -recognized worldwide for being the land of mariachi and tequila has become one of the major players in the agricultural sector in Mexico. Its share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the national agricultural sector, already reaches 12% and occupies the first places in the production of corn, milk, egg, pork and of course tequilana blue agave, with which it is made the famous tequila, one of the main agricultural exports of this country that has more than 42 existing trade agreements.

In this period Jalisco Agricultural Expo to be held in the southern part of the state, it has been an important bastion promote new technologies, inputs and machinery needed by producers in the region. This year, it served its ninth edition welcoming more than 15,000 visitors were given an appointment from 4 to 6 May.

Because of this, Siete Agromarketing, accompanied by portal e-Comercio Agrario was given the task of visiting the exhibition, which was opened by the Director General of Strategic Projects of the Ministry of Rural Development (Seder ), Ricardo Ron Siordia, who invited participants to share experiences presented successfully in business roundtables, lectures, guided tours and tastings of agro-industrial products.

Undoubtedly one of the biggest concerns of producers in this season-not only in Mexico but throughout the world has been timely supply of fertilizers whose prices have soared as a result of devaluations. For this, the Agricultural Expo Jalisco fulfilled an important contribution to promote trade in this important input and publicize programs support the Mexican government to regulate the price mission. The goal of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) for the agricultural cycle 2016, is that the price of fertilizer does not exceed 40% of the cost of crops, especially in the case of grains and sugar cane.

Financing for new crops

Another relevant topic was the agricultural funding for procurement of inputs, breeding stock and machinery. In this area the report of the Bank of Mexico, through the Trust Instituted in Relation to Agriculture (FIRA) reported that in this region have been channeled credits for 400 million pesos (20 million euros) in avocado plantations and 250 million pesos (12.5 million euros) in new projects strawberry orchards, which reveals the great thrust of the fruit and vegetable sector of the State of Jalisco.

Presence of suppliers

For most producers, the presence of new products is perhaps the most attractive part to attend the Expo. In this area, about 300 companies were recorded mostly at the local level. Stressing the presence of companies like Agriberries, Agro CR (distributor Greencorp), Agro Solutions, Greenhow, Intergabal, Lida, TunnelTek, Tierra Sana, offering new lines of greenhouses, biological products, bio-rational, amendments and fertilizer formulations to as the needs of the crops. It is noteworthy that one of the companies that attracted the interest of producers of avocado and strawberries, was Gren Corp Biorganiks of Mexico, which introduced its line of specific programs for blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, tomato, pepper, avocado and coffee with organic treatments and biorracionals.

By participating in conferences of the event, it was possible to detect that in the next month, three seminars strawberry production will take place in Michoacan, Guanajuato and Jalisco starting in June 2016. These seminars are conducted with the support of SAGARPA , CONACYT, FIRA and sponsorship of several companies such as Syngenta, FMC, Netafim, biologics- specialist products Valagro, Planasa producers varieties of strawberries.
Through the Expo, we could see the range of agricultural production in Jalisco, ranging from grains and sugar cane and livestock in the areas of production of milk, eggs and poultry, pigs and cattle. This category highlights companies Arancia as producer of corn and egg derivatives San Juan, whose production is more than 1,600 tons of eggs per day. Thanks to the efforts of the Agricultural Council of Jalisco, A.C. its affiliated companies are at the top in the production of corn, agave, milk, eggs and meat products that place it as one of the food powers. It is noteworthy that Jalisco is the home of the main tequila houses like Cuervo, Sauza, Orendain, Herradura, Hornitos and pattern among more than 200 companies that make up the Tequila Regulatory Council.

The thrust of export crops

On the other hand, in the fruit and vegetables, the presence of Jalisco producers increasingly noticeable in relation to greenhouse crops of tomato and pepper – with companies like Divemex, Bonanza and Desert Glory- and a great development of emerging crops in the state such as avocados, strawberries and organic crops of coffee, mango and banana. In this sector we can mention the activities of the Association of Avocado Producers of Jalisco (APAEJ), which in 10 years has driven planting more than 15,000 hectares of avocado with high technology that is exported to Europe and Japan. They have recently achieved the health certification for export to the United States which, prospects for the group in 2016, are placed in international markets 70,000 tons of Hass avocado. During the visit the stand of the APAEJ, made the invitation to participate in the fourth Avocado Congress to be held from 24 to 26 August 2016.

Another association with great results is the National Association of Exporters of Berries, A.C. (ANEBERRIES), based in Guadalajara, Jalsico, which groups more than 20 producers and trading companies as Driscoll, noted for having their own varieties grown mainly in Jalisco, Michoacan and Baja California with the highest standards quality control. In 2016, ANEBERRIES announced that last season exports of strawberries from Mexico managed to exceed the figure of $ 1.500 billion with an export volume of 390.583 tons with an average of $ 3.840 USD per tonne, being the highest price the blueberries with $ 11.152 USD per ton and the lowest for frozen strawberry which stood at $ 1.646 USD per tonne. Also this year, ANEBERRIES managed to make the first sea shipment of 10 tons per week of blueberries to Singapore, through the company Berries Paradaise, which is expected to be filled in, a fee of $ 30 million over the next three Eastern countries years.

During the celebration of the Expo Agropecuaria Jalisco, we saw the importance and economic potential of other crops such as chia, chayote, pitaya (lamada Fruit Dragon), tuna (cactus pear) and Granada increasingly have greater acceptance in international markets . Jalisco currently produces more than 2,000 tons of Chia, making it the first national producer. Regarding the pitaya (dragon fruit) are cultivated 800 hectares with a production of around 5,000 tons of which 80% to the United States is exported.

However, the most striking for business meetings cultivation, organic coffee turned out to be high, whose producers are seeking to obtain certification records of nearly 1,000 hectares of a total of 4,500 hectares which are planted with coffee in the State of Jalisco. With this opens a new window of opportunity for producers and transport companies and logistics support exports.