Labeling brand Sinclair Mexico hopes to be more competitive in the market by reducing its costs while maintaining the same level of quality. 

During the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Fresh Connections: Mexico event, www.freshfruitportal.com spoke with Sinclair Mexico business consultant Francisco Cadena about the current situation in the North American country and the company's main goals for 2014.

Sinclair Mexico is a division of the international Sinclair brand, and has been providing business solutions to the country since 2003.

Given the speed with which the market moves and the ability to send different products abroad, labeling is a key element in the supply chain and one that is constantly evolving.

"Each fruit has a distinctive PLU [Price look-up code] by size, type of fruit, weight. Foreign markets require the label to identify where the fruit comes from, along with who sent it, and everything else related to the traceability of the product," Cadena said.

"To do this, we include a barcode on our labels, so the client can find out which producers they are buying from."

Sinclair was the company that pioneered the development of automatic labeling machines, making the process far more efficient.

"Before, it was done manually. Back then, labeling a volume of 1-2 million fruit took too long, so we helped to make the tagging process more efficient," said Cadena.

Today, Sinclair is developing cheaper labels because prices are fixed internationally, which is a disadvantage to local companies that also offer labels.

In an effort to resolve this, Sinclair is planning to have a plant in Mexico that is responsible for creating the labels.

"In a short period of time, we’re talking less than a year, we hope to have a labeling factory in Mexico that will improve our competitiveness. We would be competing with domestic prices," Cadena said.

"It is a very interesting challenge in Mexico, because the country is currently planning new legislation to label all domestic products."

National products are not normally labeled, but if the regulation that would require producers to label their domestic products is implemented, Cadena says there would be a new area for Sinclair to explore.

"That’s what we’re looking to do, give the best prices to our clients and serve them the best possible way," he added.

www.freshfruitportal.com