A Mexico City-based delivery-only grocery store chain has announced a 400-million peso (about US $20 million) investment in Puebla.

Jüsto plans to source agricultural products in the state before selling them domestically and through export.

Puebla will be the fourth state where Jüsto has a presence, along with Mexico City, Guadalajara and Querétaro. The investment is expected to generate 500 jobs and more than 2,000 in the next two years, according to the newspaper El Universal.

Jüsto founder and CEO Ricardo Weder explained that the company offers 5,000 products online, including fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products, bread, beverages, liquor, frozen foods and medicines.

Weder, who is the former CEO of the ride-hailing service Cabify, added that the company has a monthly growth rate of 20–30%. Last year, he said that the e-commerce adoption curve was “dramatically accelerating” as a result of the pandemic, yet the market penetration rate of e-grocers is still less than 1% in Latin America.

“That means there’s an enormous opportunity — and all the right conditions — to disrupt the grocery industry …” he said.

Governor Miguel Barbosa Huerta said investment in the primary sector — the exploitation of natural resources, such as farming, fishing and forestry — was a key economic driver. “The economic growth of any state and any country is crystallized by capital investment, but also by the development of agriculture,” he said.

The head of the state Economics Ministry, Olivia Salomón, welcomed the company to the state due to its ethical business practices. “Jüsto is committed to fair trade, with a platform of more than 5,000 products, through a mobile application at competitive prices,” she said.

Ana Laura Altamirano Pérez, head of the state Rural Development Ministry, said that Puebla’s agricultural land is of sufficient quality to grow fresh produce throughout the whole year.

Manolo Fernández, a spokesman for Jüsto and member of the company’s founding team, said last year that the grocery chain has the capacity to supply fresher products to consumers than those found at brick-and-mortar supermarkets.

“At traditional supermarkets, the fill rates are lower and the product is less fresh. One of our core tenets is to reduce waste. We don’t have fruits and vegetables sitting outside in the store,” he said.

With reports from El Universal, Municipios Puebla and El Capitalino