La Jornada: Entering the EU agricultural market requires logistical investment

Mexico’s agri-food exports to the European Union grew 55.4 percent from 2024 and 2025, going from 422.1 million dollars to 656 million, according to data from the National Customs Agency of Mexico (ANAM) analyzed by the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA). In the first quarter of 2026, the accumulated amount was 152.9 million dollars, a drop of 4.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, which indicates that the rebound in 2025 has not been consolidated.

Although Mexico is an export power, only coffee and tequila explain more than half of last year’s increase, in addition to the fact that 22 of the 27 member countries receive less than 5 million dollars each in Mexican products, which means that sales are directed to a handful of European nations.

In this context, Juan Carlos Anaya, general director of the Agricultural Market Consulting Group (GCMA), highlighted that the cold chain is the main obstacle to placing perishables on the European continent and warned that the Interim Trade Agreement (ACI) between Mexico and the European Union “is necessary, but insufficient.”

Although the participation of the Mexican agri-food sector in the total exported to that bloc went from 1.6 in 2024 to 2.6 percent in 2025, and represents progress, it remains marginal compared to the potential of a market of 450 million consumers, he said.

“The growth recorded last year is largely due to the rise in international coffee prices, not to a real diversification of the exportable supply.

The aromatic went from 113.1 million in 2024 to 215 million in 2025; malt beer jumped from 5.6 to 59.1 million, and walnut, from 28.6 to 51.3 million.

In contrast, products that the federal government presented as major beneficiaries of the ACI – banana, asparagus and Persian lemon – each registered less than 500 thousand dollars in exports during 2025.

Anaya emphasized that conquering the European market will require investment in competitive logistics and cold chain, as well as active promotion mechanisms at European fairs, schemes that were previously implemented by ProMéxico and ASERCA, but are today dismantled. The absence of these institutional structures, he alluded, transfers access costs to the private sector, which reduces viability for medium-sized exporters.

Carlos Bautista, an expert in international trade at La Salle University, emphasized that for more than 20 years the tariffs between Mexico and the European Union have been at zero, so the ACI negotiations focused on technical aspects such as rules of origin, designations of origin and geographical indications, with the purpose of stopping the circulation of apocryphal products, as is the case with Manchego cheese from Castilla-La Mancha.

He pointed out that one of the challenges for Mexico is to sustain itself in the face of competition from the EU itself, whose member countries produce goods similar to those of the country.

This competition comes mainly from Spain, Morocco and Kenya, which have expanded their fruit and vegetable production within or on the margins of the European bloc, where geographical proximity defines transit times and costs in their favor. The viable niche for Mexico, estimates a GCMA analysis, is in the differentiated quality, the geographical indications – coffee from Chiapas, vanilla from Papantla, tequila from Jalisco – and the seasonal windows in berries and tropical fruits such as blackberries, raspberries, avocado and mango, periods in which Europe lacks its own supply.

In a panel held within the framework of the Mexico-European Union Business Summit, executives from the private agri-food sector agreed that the agreement opens up real possibilities, although its use will depend on the speed with which infrastructure is built and modernized.

Innovation, key for the country

Carlos Caballero, general director in Mexico of the Kerry Group, stated that the clearest opportunity in the medium term is to turn Mexico into a hub of agri-food innovation capable of serving all of Latin America, although he warned that “the main challenge is speed”, given that markets change quickly and access to new destinations does not guarantee results if the consumer is not understood in a timely manner.

Oriol Bonaclocha, general director of Heineken Mexico, described how direct integration with national producers – the company negotiates barley with around 2,000 highland farmers – allows technology transfer and increased yields, a model that he considers replicable in other agri-food chains that seek export standards.

Meanwhile, Eugenio Caballero, general director of Sigma in Mexico, pointed out that investment in technology from the national territory opens possibilities towards markets that historically were considered providers and not recipients of innovation.

Structural brakes

For the official goal of increasing agri-food exports to the EU by 50 percent by 2030 – selling 984 million dollars – to be achievable, Juan Carlos Anaya of the GCMA emphasized, it is essential to resolve the structural brakes, otherwise, the agreement will continue to benefit only non-perishable products with a consolidated brand and designation of origin, while the bulk of the exportable potential will remain unchanged from the Mexican market.