August 1

GIMSA produces 50 varieties of corn flour
https://www.opportimes.com/gimsa-produce-50-variedades-de-harina-de-maiz/
GIMSA produces 50 varieties of corn flour to produce a range of food products. The varieties are made to satisfy customer needs by type of product for the markets they serve. The corn flour produced by GIMSA in Mexico is used as a raw material for making tortillas and other corn-based products. The company sells corn flour in Mexico under the Maseca brand.

August 5

GRUMA STRENGTHENS OPERATIONS ABROAD
(El Norte Online — Nuevo León) (Reforma pg. 2) (El Economista pg. 26) (La Jornada pg. 21)(Excélsior pgs. 1-3)(24 Horas pg. 17)
Gruma earned 73% of its net sales abroad this past year, mainly from the United States. “The net sales of operations outside of Mexico represented 73% of the company’s consolidated figures. Sales from United States represented 55%, Europe 7%, Central America 5%, and Asia and Oceania 5%,” the company announced in a press release.

GRUMA CAPTIVATES THE WORLD’S PALATE WITH TORTILLAS (Milenio Diario pg. 24)
After more than a decade of expansion, the products made by Gruma under the company’s global brand,Mission, have spread to all of China and other countries in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The maker of corn flour, tortillas, and wraps has found similar success on a global scale. In a press release, the company announced that its net sales from operations outside of Mexico represented 73% of its consolidated figures. Sales from United States represented 55%, Europe 7%, Central America 5%, and Asia and Oceania 5%.

CORPORATE ANGLE / By Rogelio Varela (El Heraldo de México pg. 27) (El Heraldo de México Online)
One Mexican company that has consolidated itself as a global firm is Gruma, the corn flour giant led by Juan GonzálezMoreno. (…) Over the past year, the company’s net sales from operations outside of Mexico represented 73% of its consolidated figures. Sales from United States represented 55%, Europe 7%, Central America 5%, and Asia and Oceania 5%. (…) González Moreno’s strategy in this sense is for Gruma to increase sales on the other side of the Rio Grande by launching new products.

PUSH AND PULL / By J. Jesús Rangel M.
(Milenio Diario 26) (Milenio Online)
The Boardroom.Gruma led and directed byJuan González Moreno, has operated for 10 years in China, and the plant in Shanghai now has an installed capacity to produce 38,000 tons of corn and flour tortillas, flatbreads such as wraps, and snacks per year. However, the United States continues to be the company’s main market, representing 55% of its net sales outside of Mexico. 

GRUMA MAINTAINS GLOBAL LEADERSHIP OF CORN FLOUR, TORTILLA, WRAP PRODUCTION
(Milenio TV News, 4-5 p.m.)
Mario Castillo: Gruma continues to be the global leader in the production of corn flour, tortillas, and wraps by offering high-quality, healthy products that satisfy the tastes and demands of customers in a variety of international markets.

August 6

GRUMA PRODUCTS SOLD ACROSS CHINA
(Milenio TV News, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.)
Claudia Ovalle: After more than a decade of expansion,Gruma products made under the company’s global brand, Mission, have spread to all of China and other Countries in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The maker of corn flour, tortillas, and wraps has found similar success on a global scale. In a press release, the company announced that its net sales from operations outside of Mexico represented 73% of its consolidated figures. Sales from United States represented 55%, Europe 7%, Central America 5%, and Asia and Oceania 5%.

August 7

CORPORATE MINUTE / By Roberto Aguilar
(El Sol de México pg. 24)
Global Presence. HSBC Mexico recently recommended jumping on stock offerings of companies with successful operations outside of Mexico that earn revenues in dollars or other currencies. The list includes Gruma, led by Juan Antonio González Moreno, which last year consolidated its global presence with 73% of sales from abroad. United States has become the company’s principal market, with 55% of sales. Meanwhile, Europe represented 7% of sales, Central America 6%, and Asia and Oceania 5%. Gruma is preparing new products for the U.S. market to continue increasing the country’s share of sales.

August 9

Back To School with Healthy Food (https://www.milenio.com/salud/regreso-a-la-escuela-con-alimentos-saludables)
The school year is about to start, and in addition to making a shopping list for school supplies, it’s important to establish healthy food habits for kids. Healthy food routines help children grow and is good for their concentration. Tortillas are the most readily available food item for Mexicans. Some tortillas, such as those made with Maseca that we can find in our nearby tortilla shop, have additional iron and folic acid to help prevent and fight red blood cell deficiency that causes child anemia.

August 10

FEDERAL DELEGATE INTRODUCES AG SEC TO TAMAULIPAS FARMERS
(El Mercurio Online — Tamaulipas)
Today Mexican federal authorities led by the Undersecretary of Agriculture, Víctor Suárez, held a meeting with agricultural producers in Tamaulipas to listen to their needs and reach an agreement to end the highway blockades in the state. José Ramón Gómez Leal, the federal government delegate, said this was the fourth time that the Undersecretary of Agriculture has visited Tamaulipas, as part of the commitment President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made to the region. High public officials did not previously visit Tamaulipas, Gómez Leal said. Also present at the meeting were Fernando de la Torre Sánchez from the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research, the agriculture consultant Juan José Valdespino Andrade, Francisco Javier Trujillo Arriaga from the National Service for Agri-food Health, Safety and Quality, Natalia Palacios, Mercedes Pérez, and José Alberto Cabello from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, and Francisco Martínez from Gruma.

August 15

Get Your Recommended Folic Acid
(https://www.elgrafico.mx/vida/incluye-el-acido-folico)
According to the Mexican Association of Nutritionists, it is easy to include the necessary amount of folic acid in a balanced diet without having to take costly supplements or treatments. Examples of food products with natural folic acid content include figs, vegetables, beans, fruits, and tortillas made with nixtamalized corn supplemented with the vitamin, such as tortillas made with Maseca.

August 18

GRUPO MASECA, COMMITTED TO MEXICAN AGRICULTURE
(TV Azteca News Online)
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) recently made the appeal to promote native domestic corn. However, there is not enough of this type of corn to supply the agri-food industry, which is why tortillas in Mexico are made with white corn through traditional techniques or with corn flour such as Maseca. White corn is cultivated in Mexico in self-sufficient supplies. It is important to note that Gruma, the company that makes Maseca and the world’s leading producer of corn flour, tortillas, and wraps, is supporting local corn producers and their profitability through training and financial support, thus helping the country continue to be self-sufficient in white corn and increase its production.

CORN FLOUR IMPORTS REACH RECORD USD 7.2 MILLION
(Con Nuestro Perú Online)
Imports of corn flour in Peru hit record levels between January and July of this year, reaching USD 7.2 million. This represented a 345% increase with respect to the same period in 2018, according to Ricardo Espejo, Business Intelligence Coordinator of the Center for Foreign Trade of the Lima Chamber of Commerce. “Last year in the period from January to July [imports] stood at USD 1.6 million, but this year crushed the record, coming in at USD 7.2 million, and if we look at the total imports in 2018, from January to December, it was only USD 4.8 million. The five brands with the most demand are P.A.N, Arepasan, La Nieve, Del Sol, and Maseca,” Espejo said.

August 19

MEXICO IN AFRICA: OPENING DOORS TO NEW OPPORTUNITIES / By Julián Ventura
(La Razón pg. 9)
Mexico is a player on the global stage, with an open economy and a tested commitment to multilateralism. In our bilateral relationships, we seek not only to open political dialogue but to promote commerce and productive investments. Our international standing is directly linked to our goals for social development and inclusion. (...) Let’s take a look at South Africa, a country with which we just celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations and which has historically been our primary trade partner in the region. Last year, trade between Mexico and South Africa was USD 650 million, a figure that could be much higher. Mexican companies such as Bimbo, Cemex, Gruma, SuKarne, and soon, Kidzania, have successfully entered the South African market.

August 20

Price of Corn Plummets
(El Economista pgs. 1, 8) (El Economista Online)
(Article with call-out on A1) The price of corn has dropped 19.74% to USD 3.65 per bushel, down from this year’s high of USD 4.5475 on June 17. The price drop was caused primarily by trade conflicts and a swine epidemic in China. Gruma, a company with a global reach, hedged its price of corn for 2018 and 2019, which represents up to 40% of its costs, offering the company flexibility in the event of price increases, according to a report by Monex analyst Jimena Colín.

August 22

GRUMA PRESIDENT JUAN GONZÁLEZ MORENO GREETS PRESIDENT ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR (Milenio.com)

August 23

CONFIDENTIAL AGENDA / By Luis Soto
(El Heraldo de México pg. 8)
After recommending that people “don’t stop choosing Banorte, because it’s a good bank,” and praising the businessman and banker Carlos Hank González, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told the following anecdote: “I knew his grandfather, Roberto González Barrera, and I had a good relationship with him from the time I was the Head of the Mexico City Government, but also later from the opposition party. That’s when you can tell if it’s true friendship or not because in politics, it often happens that you have false friends and true enemies. Roberto was a true friend,” said President López Obrador.

August 26

TORTILLAS ARE ESSENTIAL TO DIET IN SOUTHEAST MEXICO (El Financiero Online)
Abraham Vergara Contreras, professor at the Ibero-American University and head of business and finance, said that corn tortillas have become a key component for people’s diets in Southeast Mexico, a vulnerable region due to the lack of economic development and one that is also facing large migration flows. The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance has reported that the flow of migrants continues to grow. According to the National Migration Institute, numbers this year have increased compared to Nay 2018. The agency said that women in the region use up to 14 kilograms of Maseca nixtamalized corn flour to make tortillas to cover the needs of migrants traveling through the area every day.

10 Mexicans with Businesses in Central America
(https://www.forbes.com.mx/10-millonarios-mexicanos-con-negocios-en-centroamerica/)
Juan A. González Moreno. Sector: Food.
Gruma established its first commercial relationship with Central America, specifically with Costa Rica, in 1972. The company opened Derivados de Maíz Alimenticio, or DEMASA, with which it started to build a tortilla plant and sell the first packages of tortillas under the TortiRicas brand. In 1988, the company built a production plant in Comayagua, Honduras under the name DEMAHSA, and a second one in Choloma in 1995. In 1994, Gruma built the DEMAGUSA plant in Guatemala, and the company started to do business in Nicaragua under the Tortimasa brand in1992.

August 28

JUAN GONZÁLEZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF GRUMA
(Expansión pgs. 97-98)
“I continue visualizing Gruma as a leading company, increasing our presence with productive plants on all the continents of our planet. We currently lack a physical presence only in Africa and believe that we will operate there soon. With respect to our portfolio of products, consumers prefer organic and gluten-free products with high protein and fiber content, and this trend will continue growing. These will be the main factors that transform the industry, as is currently happening with organic products and super foods.”

August 29

GRUMA TO BUY MORE CORN IN TAMAULIPAS
(El Norte Online — Nuevo León) (Reforma Online) (Mural Online — Jalisco) (Excélsior pg. 2) (Milenio Diario pg. 23) (El Sol de México pg. 21)(El Heraldo de México pg. 29)
Gruma has pledged to work with the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) on the Comprehensive White Corn Management Program in Northern Tamaulipas. The purpose of this program is to reduce corn imports in the medium term and purchase close to 400,000 tons from producers in Tamaulipas, Mexico, to replace the amounts currently purchased from the United States. The company announced in a press release that it currently imports 600,000 tons of corn per year, which represents 24% of the 2.5 million tons of corn it processes in Mexico. With this program, the company said, corn imports would be reduced by 8% and benefit the state’s corn producers.

CORPORATE ANGLE / By Rogelio Varela
(El Heraldo de México pg. 27)
As I said earlier, one of the objectives of this administration is to increase food production with the same arable surface area. To this end, the Secretariat of Agriculture, with Víctor Villalobos at the helm, just entered into an agreement with Gruma, led by Juan González Moreno, to join forces for the Comprehensive White Corn Management Program in Northern Tamaulipas The idea is to reduce corn imports in the medium term and purchase close to 400,000 tons from producers in Tamaulipas that are currently purchased from the United States.

ACTIONS AND REACTIONS
(El Economista pg. 2)
In support of the farmers. Working together is the key. That was the message sent by Grupo Industrial Maseca (Gruma), which intends to work closely with the Secretariat of Agriculture in the Comprehensive White Corn Management Program in Northern Tamaulipas. Gruma, the producer of nixtamalized corn flour, said the objective in the medium term is to improve the health and safety conditions of white corn harvested in that state to benefit human health.

GRUMA TO WORK WITH THE SECRETARIAT OF AGRICULTURE FOR CORN DEVELOPMENT IN TAMAULIPAS (Telediario, 7-9:30 p.m., Mexico City)

SECRETARIAT OF AGRICULTURE AND GRUMA JOIN EFFORTS TO SUPPORT MEXICAN FARMERS (Milenio TV News, 2-3 p.m.)