Abstract

ECHANOVE HUACUJA, Flavia. Supply to Mexico City: the case of small strawberry producers in Guanajuato. Invest. Geog [online]. 2001, n.45, pp.128-148. ISSN 2448-7279.

This article examines the issues being faced by small-scale strawberry producers from Guanajuato, who supply the largest city in Mexico, are facing to market their product. This case study analyzes the situation of ejidatarios from the La Soledad ejido, located in Irapuato, Guanajuato, and their dependency on a consolidated network of local and regional intermediaries as the only alternative to sell their products. Various aspects related to the perishable nature of their production, namely the lack of infrastructure (transport, packaging and processing), of trade-related regulations, of information about production and marketing, of financial means and the current disorganization altogether summarize their dependency from intermediaries, as well as the economic results from their activity. For comparison with other types of producers, the case of mid-sized and large farmers was also studied, revealing that the typology of farmers is closely related to the way these agents sell their products, and to the economic results of these transactions. I also examined the links between intermediaries and wholesale agents in the Mexico City's Central de Abastos, as well as those between these agents and retailers, in order to provide a complete scenario of the production chain studied.

Keywords : Smallholder vegetable producers; strawberry in Guanajuato; strawberry marketing.