Mission Foods México, a subsidiary of Mexican tortilla maker Gruma, plans to invest US $89 million in a new plant in Hunucmá, Yucatán over the next six to eight years, the company announced on Friday.
At a press conference with Yucatán governor Mauricio Vila, Neder Ernesto Badii González, CEO of Mission Foods México, said that the factory will have the capacity to produce 56,000 tonnes per year of packaged tortillas, tostadas, baked goods and snacks.
These will be shipped from Puerto Progreso to the southern United States and Caribbean countries such as the Dominican Republic, as well as supplying the Mexican market.
The project is expected to generate 800 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs in Yucatán, of which 55% will go to women. The firm also hopes to use a predominantly local supply chain.
“The important thing is that… formal and well-paid jobs reach the interior of the state, benefiting not only the people of Hunucmá, but also Tetiz, Kinchil, Celestún, and that entire area,” said governor Vila.
Vila noted that British consulting firm Deloitte has named Yucatán as the state with the best business conditions in Mexico, while the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) has called it the most competitive state in the southeast.
Although nearshoring is most often associated with Mexico’s northern states, located near the U.S. border, Yucatán has benefited from recent investments in infrastructure, including the expansion of Puerto Progreso, and comparatively good security conditions.
Other companies that have announced new factories in Yucatán in recent months include Dutch brewery Heineken, which in September announced plans to build a new beer production plant near Mérida. Breweries are increasingly looking to southern Mexico to set up new projects, due in part to water scarcity problems in the north.
“The best sign that things are working in a state is that local entrepreneurs continue to invest and this is what is happening in Yucatán,” Vila said at Friday’s press conference. “This is an excellent sign that we are on the right track.”
With reports from El Economista and Forbes
