Mexicans aim to tickle Chinese tongues

MEXICO CITY - Small Mexican agricultural producers are seeking to access the Chinese market with value-added goods, such as salsas and spirits.

Avocado growers and packers in Mexico's western Nayarit state are a prime example. Five years ago, they decided to start making guacamole, a party staple concocted from mashed avocados, tomatoes, onions and seasonings, and market it under the brand name Guacamo Dely.

Today, the company, located in Xalisco, employs 120 people and exports to the United States and Israel. It is about to send its first shipment to Russia.

The next target is China. After doing their market research, the growers plan to modify their products to suit the Chinese palate. Hugo Guerrero, the company's sales manager, said that since Chinese consumers aren't fond of sour food items, Guacamo Dely will make a version for the Chinese market without adding lime juice.

"We have done tests to win over this new market. We want to satisfy them," Guerrero said.

Mexico's agricultural exports to China have doubled to $300 million a year since the two countries agreed to relaunch trade ties in 2013.

Over the past four years, Mexican products such as avocados, beer and tequila have gained a foothold in the Chinese market, while the Chinese government has opened the door in recent years to Mexican beef, pork, dairy, berries, corn and leaf tobacco.

Tequila, mezcal

Gerson Alcantar wants to introduce Chinese people to mezcal, an alcoholic beverage made from the agave plant, that his family has been handcrafting for 150 years in the mountainous municipality of Mezquital, in the northern Mexican state of Durango.

A cousin of tequila, mezcal has a notable charcoal-fired aroma. Alcantar thinks Chinese consumers will relish the taste.

His small company, Apaluz, employs 50 people and produces 200,000 liters of the spirit annually. It is sold exclusively in Mexico.

However, Alcantar, who is the sales manager, wants to ride the wave of popularity that mezcal currently enjoys and take the product to China and other destinations around the world.

Chinese buyers have already shown an interest in the Apaluz mezcal, which features a scorpion in every bottle, a reminder of the arachnid's prevalence in the deserts of Durango.

"We have high hopes of arriving over there soon," he said of China. "It's a country with a lot of people. If 10 percent consumes our mezcal, that's a good amount."

Guacamo Dely and Apaluz are two of the 800 Mexican products featured in the 2017 Mexico Food Show, which opened in Mexico City on Friday.

Some 150 buyers from 34 countries are attending the three-day show, including a delegation from China.

Quality, price

Hua Yaoming, with Shanghai's Aon Food Enterprises, said he was looking for Mexican wine and beef suppliers who offer high-quality, and products with competitive prices compared with countries such as Australia.

"Many Mexican beef producers still have no access to the Chinese market, but they are requesting to be able to do so," said Hua, who is on his first business trip to Latin America.

The Mexican government estimates the food fair, which aims primarily to promote small-scale producers looking to export their goods, will see contracts signed worth nearly $1 billion.

Xinhua