Cofece suggests that Gruma sell five of its plants

With a stock market loss of almost 10 billion pesos, Gruma faced the resolution of the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece), which determined that the company has a dominant position in the market for corn flour for tortillas, a basic food For Mexicans, since 98.6 percent of the population consumes corn tortillas and 68 percent do so daily.

The investigating authority of the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) explained that it preliminarily detected that there are no conditions of effective competition in the markets for the production, marketing and distribution of bulk white and blue corn flour for the commercial production of tortillas. , with a regional geographical dimension, due to the probable existence of a barrier to competition and free competition.

Given this information, Gruma shares fell 7.57 percent on the Mexican Stock Exchange this Monday, to a price of 334.26 pesos per share. Thus, its capitalization value (the number of shares in circulation for the price of its securities) registered a daily decrease of 9 thousand 944.73 million pesos, as it reached a market value of 121 thousand 451.40 million pesos at the close of this Monday , after on Friday it added a value of 131 thousand 396.13 million pesos.

Cofece detailed in a statement that for this investigation it divided the country into eight regions and analyzed the total sales and installed capacity of the companies between 2016 and 2022. Thus, it found that Gruma has between 50 and 90 percent of sales in each one of the regions of the country. That is, in some areas almost nine out of every 10 kilos of flour are sold by Gruma, a market share between 22 and 80 times greater than its largest competitor in each of the areas.

Likewise, the average price of its products is almost 10 percent higher than that of its competitors nationwide.

Cofece assured that this research was essential because corn tortilla represents almost 6 percent of household food expenditure, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, and nixtamalized corn flour represents almost half of the production cost. of the corn tortilla that is not produced directly from masa.

He suggested that to reactivate competition in the market, so as to encourage the entry and growth of new competitors and, ultimately, allow Mexicans to enjoy better prices, Gruma sell five nixtamalized corn flour production plants, as well as as well as the entire distribution fleet and the sales force of said plants.

Gruma responded in a statement to the investing public that the company has always conducted itself within the framework of the law, has cooperated openly and in good faith with Cofece since the beginning of the market investigation and will continue to collaborate in the same way in order to assert within the legal period of 45 business days the rights and legal remedies granted by the Constitution and applicable laws.