Guadalajara, Jalisco. Due to the fact that the berry industry is currently one of the most important agri-food businesses in the country, whose annual exports amount to 2,280 million dollars, the Chilean company Typack -specialized in the manufacture of packaging to transport berries- installed in Jalisco its first food packaging production plant.
With an investment of 5 million dollars, the industrial warehouse located in the municipality of Zapopan has an area of 5,000 square meters and the capacity to annually produce 180 million clamshells (packaging of a thermoformed piece) per year.
However, the company plans to double its production capacity by 2023 by injecting a new investment of 4 million dollars; With this, its production will rise to 360 million packages per year and will generate 50% more than the hundred current jobs, the CEO of the company, Felipe Dutilh, told El Economista.
He explained that the decision to install its packaging manufacturing plant in Jalisco is due to the fact that in two or three years Mexico will displace Chile as the leader in the production and export of strawberries, due to its proximity to the North American market and other competitive advantages such as the technology used in their crops and their workforce.
“Mexico has advantages of geographical location, it has advantages of growth potential, land, water, labor and proximity to customers, producers, farmers and also consumers who mainly these fruits are destined for the American market” , he underlined.
According to the CEO of Typack, while the shipment of berries from Chile to the United States takes between three weeks and a month, a shipment from Guadalajara to Chicago, New York, Washington or California arrives in 72 hours.
“In the 1980s, 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, it was the undisputed leader in the production and export of blueberries and grapes; however, in the last five or seven years other countries have entered with great force, mainly Peru and Mexico”, he referred.
In Mexico, around 34,000 hectares of berries are grown with an estimated production of 900,000 tons per year.