We hit Mexico's ANTAD Alimentaria last week to seek out the latest trends in finished products. From cactus snacks to green banana flour; matcha horchata to lemon popcorn, this is what we saw.
We hit Mexico's ANTAD Alimentaria last week to seek out the latest trends in finished products. From cactus snacks to green banana flour; matcha horchata to lemon popcorn, this is what we saw.
Mexico City-based Kua Foods was showing Nopalia, a snack made with corn and 38% fresh organic nopal cactus.
Available in three flavors – original lime and chili; chipotle chili; and habanero chili – the snacks are free from trans fat and artificial flavors.
“People like this because it’s low in fat, high in fiber, natural and has 100% Mexican flavors,” said Angel Gomez, sales manager.
Nopalia is currently sold only in Mexico – retailers Walmart and Costco began stocking it around six months ago – but the company is currently in negotiations to export to the US.
“I think it could be a success in other Latin American countries, it’s definitely a new trend to use nopal in finished products,” added Gomez.
A 30 g portion provides 9 g of fat and 3 g fiber.
Cynthia Esparza is the CEO and founder of TeaSpot, a tea and herbal infusion company and tearoom in Tijuana.
Esparza travelled to Japan last year to visit matcha tea gardens and factories with the aim of adding the green tea to Tea Spot’s range.
But in order to appeal to Mexican palates, she developed a range products tailored to local tastes.
“Matcha tea on its own is very strong and can have a slightly fishy taste. That’s why I added other ingredients to the tea, so people can get used to the flavor,” she told us.
“Our other problem is that in Mexico, people think tea is like a medicine. For example, people only drink tea if they have a stomachache. I am working to change that mentality.”
Tea Spot sells matcha horchata powder; matcha chocolate; and matcha collagen.
Horchata, a creamy drink typically made with rice, sugar and cinnamon in Mexico, is popular throughout the country, and can be found in restaurants, supermarkets and street food stands.
Esparza, who also runs a tearoom in Tijuana, said consumers have been “very receptive” to the matcha range, which launched last year and has already become the company’s best-selling range.
The matcha powder blended with plant-based collagen appeals to health-conscious consumers and has COFEPRIS-backed health claims, she said.
TeaSpot’s products are sold in stores in the Baja California region as well as tearooms and coffee shops throughout Mexico.
Husband-and-wife Zayurit de la Cruz Lomera and Jaime Vazquez were both banana growers before deciding to use their production to make added-value finished products.
They manufacture gluten-free flour made from green bananas.
“The community where this comes from is completely dependent on bananas […] but they are almost always sold fresh," said de la Cruz Lomera. "We wanted to create a new product that has added-value, selling it at a price that [gives back] to the community. We buy the bananas at a higher price than the middlemen.”
“First we cultivate the bananas, then we dry them out in the sun and grind them to a flour. It’s a 100% natural process, we don’t add any chemical products.
“It’s very complete from a nutritional point of view and is gluten-free. Bakers can use it in the exact same way as wheat and potato flour but it is healthier.”
Based in Coahuayana in the southwestern state of Michoacán, Xokotl has already started to sell in shops in Guadalajara and was at ANTAD Alimentaria to find national and international distributors.
“In Mexico, not everyone can buy this product, it’s for a more selective consumer base. We would like to export this,” said de la Cruz Lomera.
Around six kilos of fresh bananas are needed to produce one kilo of green banana flour, which is around six times more expensive than wheat flour.
Xokotl means fruit in native Mexican language Nahuatl.
Slim Pop makes air-popped popcorn and counts three products in its range – sea salt; lemon & sea salt; and mixed chili – all of which are flavored with natural flavoring.
Manufactured by Preferred Popcorn, a US corn supplier based in Nebraska, Slim Pop is the company’s first consumer-facing brand, which launched in Mexico around four years ago.
Director of sales and marketing Rosi Hernandez told us the company wanted to launch a branded product but did not want to come into direct competition with its own customers in the US.
“In Mexico we found a niche,” she said. “We’re trying to raise awareness here that snacking can be healthy.”
“There is competition [from local corn-based products] but we are pioneers of this hot air popping method and our equipment is patented.”
Slim Pop will soon be launching sweet popcorn, sweetened with agave syrup.
Apart from the US-grown, GM-free corn, all ingredients are sourced from Mexico, added Hernandez.
An 18 g-bag retails for around MXN$11 and a 110 g-bag for around MXN$29.
Holistik is a Mexican company making premium, ‘healthy indulgence’, fruit-based ice creams, ice pops and smoothies.
Free from sugar, the products use superfood ingredients such as avocado, maca, pine nuts and fruit such as mango and passion fruit.
“I know a lot of people are making similar [products] but still I think we are doing it differently,” founder and CEO Jorge Arteaga
said.
“We do not use erythritol or xylitol to sweeten our ice cream; we use natural stevia, monk fruit, dates or agave, for example. We also use chunks of real fruit, not fruit concentrate, and we buy whole almonds to make our own almond milk.”
Arteaga used to work in the family-owned frozen vegetable company but wanted to launch a product targeting “younger” consumers.
He founded Holistik three years ago, starting with the ice pops before launching the ice cream and smoothie ranges.
“It’s a very premium product. It’s the perfect balance between healthy and delicious,” Arteaga added.
Arteaga said 95% of its ingredients are sourced from Mexico (notable exceptions are the monk fruit and matcha tea, which it buys from Asia).
Holistik’s products are manufactured in Aguascalientes in central Mexico and sold throughout the country in major retail chains including Walmart and City Market. It also exports to the US, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and recently started shipping to Dubai.
It is currently in negotiations with distributors in Panama and Colombia and hopes to begin shipping there this year.
One pint of ice cream (473 ml) retails for around MXN$110.
Compared to a trade show in Europe or North America, there was less talk of ‘clean label’ products at ANTAD Alimentaria.
Mexico has a wide income gap and many products at the expo were targeted to the country’s more price-sensitive consumers.
Duliik, for instance, is a Michoacán-based company that manufactures tamarind and chili candy made with artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and modified starch under the brand name Woliris.
The candy is sold in the Michoacán region and the company said it was targeting the the Latino community in the US for exports.
Founded in 2017, Duliik’s name comes from the words dulce, which means sweet in Spanish, and iik, which means chili in Mayan.
Peruvian company Amazon Andes is a B2B supplier of organic native products from the Andean-Amazon region of Peru. It began making finished consumer-facing products, such as snack packs and supplements three years ago.
At ANTAD Alimentaria, it was showcasing its range of healthy snacks made with maca chips that caught the attention of judges and scooped up a prize for product innovation at the show's awards.
There are four products in the Simi range: ‘Salad simi’ with maca chips, toasted sacha inchi and pineapple; ‘Sweet simi’ snack
with maca chips, toasted sacha inchi and mango; ‘Cacao Simi’ with maca chips, cacao, sweetened with yacon syrup; and ‘Nuts simi’ with maca, Brazil nuts and golden berries.
“They are popular because at the minute the trend is for healthier products," said commercial assistant Katherine Reyes. "Millennials want things that are better for the body and not too many people want artificial products. [These products] are more expensive but they have a special value.”
The company said it focuses on “super-functional” ingredients and claims to be the only Peruvian company that uses vegan capsules for its supplements.
According to Reyes, Amazon Andes' biggest markets are Korea, which accounts for around 60% of its sales, followed by the US, Europe and then Latin America.
Within LATAM, its biggest markets are Chile and Mexico, she said.
In July this year, the company will expand into the functional cosmetics category, Reyes said.
US Tobacco began manufacturing hemp cigarettes for the Californian market in the US and is now “migrating” to the global business of CBD products, said Carlos Varela, vice president of commercial at US Tobacco, based in Tijuana, Mexico.
The tobacco giant was at ANTAD Alimentaria presenting Hemp Box, a vending machine specifically for CBD derivatives.
“Through this vending machine we are going to sell products with CBD, like chocolates, creams, oils, balsams […], energy bars. Any product that can fit inside this box.”
Varela said the company would launch the franchise in California in the US before rolling out to Mexico, where CBD products are authorized.
The vending machine format would work well for CBD products because it could ‘normalize’ them, he added.
“In Mexico, there is still a lot of questioning about whether CBD is legal or not. We know it’s legal but people still have some trouble with the difference between hemp and marijuana, and the assumption is that hemp is the same thing but it doesn’t contain any THC.
“That’s why we are betting on this machine. You could put it in a pharmacy, for example. The pharmacy would not sell things if they think it [contained] marijuana.”
“CBD is a success all around the world, and Mexico is going to follow the success in other countries,” added Varela.
“In Mexico, a lot of people are buying CBD oil for different diseases but they are buying [online] from the US or from Europe. The idea is to bring the product to the Mexican market and to have it just around the corner, instead of having to wait two months [for a product to be delivered].”
De la Rosa, which, since 1942 has made iconic Mexican brand De la Rosa peanut marzipan, was showing its most recent product, Coffeebreak, a premium range of candy that it launched in November.
“This is the first product from De la Rosa made with real coffee so it’s a more natural product,” said distribution manager Diego Jiménez. “Our other candies are flavored so this is more premium than our other hard candies.”
It has a recommended retail price of MXN$75 for a sharing bag.
The company exports to the US, Canada, Central America and Colombia, Bolivia and Chile in South America although Mexico is its biggest market, said Jiménez.
