We’re back in Canada after a successful two weeks in Mexico at the recent GreenTech Americas show and the AMHPAC congress. We were joined by our Mexico partners, Rancho Nexo. Below is a summary of our participation in the events, what we learned and how we plan on helping protected agriculture growers in Mexico with our CO2 Delivery Solutions™ technology.
GreenTech Americas – Centro de Congresos Queretaro, Mexico – 24th to 26th August, 2021
This was the first GreenTech conference in Mexico as last year’s show was postponed due to COVID. The show is open to anyone in the agriculture industry with several companies exhibiting. Our Mexico partners, Rancho Nexo, attended with three of their team members, Sergio Hernandez who is Head of Sales & Distribution, Nevid Meza who is Head of Technology Transfer & Innovation and Humberto Mayorga who is Head of Agribusiness. The team was able to meet with several people including growers and potential sub-distributors. Being the first in-person conference for our technology in Mexico, it was important to establish relationships with growers in the region in order to understand some of the nuances in the Mexican protected ag market. Having attended the Greentech Americas conference with success, a number of the same potential clients were at AMHPAC the following week, where we were able to engage in further discussions.
AMHPAC Annual Congress – Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos – 1st to 3rd September, 2021
The Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture, referred to as AMHPAC, held their annual general meeting and convention at the Hyatt Ziva hotel in Los Cabos. Our Corporate Development Manager, Dil Vashi, joined Sergio and Nevid of Rancho Nexo in Los Cabos. Just a few weeks ago, CO2 GRO became bronze members of AMHPAC.
AMHPAC is the most important organization for protected agriculture in Mexico where membership provides significant benefits. Many of the largest growers in Mexico were in attendance including highest ranking team members such as the CEOs of the greenhouse growers. This made in-person networking crucial and with the help of all three of our team members present, we were able to answer most of the pertinent questions posed by growers.
AMHPAC also provides resources for information and data about the market which we can use to develop a precise strategy for how to tackle the large Mexican protected ag market.
The Mexican Protected Ag Market
The Mexican agriculture market is primarily located in the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Jalisco and Michoacan.
The protected agriculture market has experienced tremendous growth over the past decade, growing over five and a half fold from 10,000 hectares in 2010 to over 54,000 hectares in 2019, which by 2021 is estimated to be well over 55,000 hectares.
• Greenhouses account for 26%.
• Shade houses account for 46%.
• Macro tunnels account for 28%.
The vast majority of greenhouses do not employ CO2 enrichment by gassing and those that do, regularly vent making the maintenance of >800 ppm levels difficult. None of the shade houses and macro tunnels employ CO2 enrichment due to continual venting. This means the only solution for Mexican protected ag growers to provide additional CO2 to their plants in order to increase production by up to 30% is CO2 GRO’s CO2 Delivery Solutions™ technology. That’s a total potential of basically all of the Mexican protected ag market, or over 55,000 hectares (nearly 6 billion square feet).
Vegetables such as tomato, bell pepper and cucumber account for most of the protected ag production, with nearly 30,000 hectares grown in mostly shade houses and greenhouses. Nearly all berry production (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and blueberry) is grown in macro tunnels, with other crops such as apples and some flowers (primarily roses) grown in shade houses.
Tomatoes are by far the most common crop produced in Mexican protected ag facilities with over 16,000 hectares of production in greenhouses and shade houses. Bell pepper and cucumber are also typically grown in greenhouses with approximately 6,000 hectares of production each. Strawberries and raspberries also encompass about 6,000 hectares each primarily grown in macro tunnels. These crops, representing over 40,000 hectares of protected ag production, all benefit from CO2 supplementation which only CO2 Delivery Solutions™ can adequately provide year-round, regardless of the protected structure type.
How we are approaching the Mexican Protected Agriculture Market
The Mexican protected ag market is highly organized as evident by the exceptionally well run AMHPAC organization. Many of the members we met with are sophisticated businessmen who understand the market, their operations, and what is needed for them to continue competing in the global marketplace. As such, they are interested in technologies that will help them achieve better quality production, more production volume, reduce overall costs, increase margins and in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Explaining the benefits of CO2 Delivery Solutions™ to the members we met, many of whom were owners and operators of the greenhouses, was crucial especially as they relate to what the growers are looking for. Their understanding of how our technology solves the problem of CO2 being a limiting factor was met with interest and enthusiasm. Their interest in our technology encompassed the entire spectrum of benefits including increasing production yield, increasing revenue, lowering overall marginal costs, increasing profitability, high ROI, flexible payment options, and the important factor of being able to reduce their operations’ ecological footprint.
Together with our partners in Mexico, we look forward to working with Mexican protected growers in conducting feasibility trials in order to demonstrate the production and financial impact of CO2 Delivery Solutions™ on their crops. These initial feasibilities offer growers the opportunity to be early adopters in the market and gain a crucial competitive advantage.
To learn more about the benefits of CO2 Delivery Solutions to Mexican and Global protected agriculture growers, visit co2delivery.ca
