Objective:

Analyze the regulatory system involved in horticulture distribution in Mexico City. In particular, to identify the marketing practices carried out by the transnational Wal-Mart in the distribution phase with the Central de Abasto of Mexico City.

Methodology:

Document review and semi-structured interviews with distributors companies of the Central de Abasto in Mexico City that market or marketed with large supermarkets, particularly with the multinational company Wal-Mart.

Results:

The supermarket system evidenced the transformations and limitations that hinder the productive and social development of Mexican horticulture distributors. New distribution and purchasing systems, on the one hand, condition suppliers and producers by directing national distribution to private purposes, and on the other hand, control supply and prices to the consumer.

Limitations:

The text does not consider the direct effects that national production has faced as result of private sector driven transformations in agroindustrial matters.

Conclusions:

The continuous evolution and interrelationship faced by the agri-food subsystems with the outside world outlines a new order to promote the challenges of regulatory policy in the country if it is intended to generate competitive strategies in the agent’s involved and articulate internal trade.