MEXICO

Feedback from the Trade on Their Plans and Interest in the USA Pear Season:

Importers continue to be interested in handling USA Pears, but the lack of supplies at origin is limiting the volumes handled. Some of them mentioned that their suppliers do not have volumes available; for this reason, they are quoting with other suppliers. Other importers have agreements with their suppliers and expect to continue importing Northwest pears for the upcoming period. Currently, USA Pears are reporting very good sales, especially pears from CA which reported the best quality. Pears from regular cold storage reported yellowing, which causes importers and wholesalers to reduce the price to continue pushing sales. At the wholesale level, USA Pears held 67% pear market share with 46% at supermarket stores and 60% at traditional channels.

Expectations for Any Freight or Logistics Challenges:

No expectations about any freight or logistics challenges are expected by importers.

Opportunities in Your Market for Specific Varieties, Sizes, and Grades:

Mexico is an opportunity market and can handle different varieties, sizes, and quality grades if the price is competitive. Importers can supply different retail sectors -- even when some supermarket chains import USA Pears directly, many other regional retail chains are supplied form the wholesale markets, which is also the case with traditional retailers. This opens the opportunity to distribute Northwest pears to different socioeconomic level retailers, from the ones who are looking for larger sizes and better quality, to the ones looking to offer small sizes in order to have more pieces, even when the quality grade is not the best.

Update on the Competition in the Market:

Pears from Argentina reported 22% pear market share at wholesale, 13% at supermarket stores and 30% at traditional channels. Quality was good and good sales were reported. It is expected that volumes will increase for the next month. Pears from Chile reported 10% pear market share at wholesale, 35% in supermarket stores, and 9% at traditional channels. Quality and sales were reported as good, and volumes are expected to increase for the upcoming period. Pears from China reported 1% pear market share at wholesale, 6% in retail stores, and 1% at traditional channels; quality was good but low sales due to price.

Political or Economic Issues Impacting Imports, Retail, or Consumer Behavior:

Trade will be impacted if tariffs are implemented by the US and Mexico issues its own retaliatory tariffs, but in the current situation, importers are confident to continue importing Northwest pears without any concern about additional import duties.

Other Brief Comments:

This 2025 will be a year of growth for Walmart in Mexico. With the objective of adding stores and building two distribution centers, the firm will invest 6,000 million dollars. In practice, the investment will result in the creation of 5,500 new direct jobs that will be added to the more than 200 thousand that it currently has. The investment involves the creation of new stores for all its business units: Bodega Aurrera, Sam's Club, Walmart Supercenter and Walmart Express. To complete its expansion, Walmart will build two state-of-the-art distribution centers, located in Bajío and in the state of Tlaxcala. These facilities will integrate advanced technology, including robotics and artificial intelligence, and will add to the 21 distribution centers already operating in Mexico.