The German company Don Limon attended the recent edition of the New York Produce Show, and according to owner Andreas Schindler, the U.S. has been a market of great interest since 2008. “We participate in every PMA, we have an office in Guatemala who have been working with the U.S. for the past two years, which we’ve recently expanded, and we are at this event to learn more about the East Coast market.”Don Limon’s marketing is steered by its lime business. The company’s Mexican limes are shipped mainly to the U.S., Europe and Japan. Andreas states that “the initial idea was to develop these markets and invest in production, but now we are implementing a lot of what we learned in other markets . This let us grow also with other products like Mango and Apples. I’m convinced that in the next 3-5 years we will develop strong business here.”
In this process, Andreas believes that one of the greatest obstacles is communication, “because there are very few direct contacts between Mexico and the U.S.; it is mostly conducted by brokers, and it is not a matter of language, but of mentality. Our strategy is always to establish permanent links between origin and destination.”
Don Limon’s owner believes that the trend for the future will be for supermarkets to work directly with producers. The challenge is to overcome the difficulties caused by the contrasting mentalities and communications across the U.S.
Regarding the current situation in the lime market, Andreas states that after a few bad months following the World Cup, results during the past two months have been great.
“Brazil has shortages and Mexico was not sending a great deal, which kept the prices high most of the time.” Now the season from Mexico is over and only Brazil will stay in the market until May.
Mexico will send all their product to USA market. High demand and low supply will keep prices high in North America
For more information:
Andreas Schindler
Pilz Schindler GmbH
Tel: +49 40 3095499 45
Email: aschindler@pilz-schindler.de
www.don-limon.de