Interview: Expo Agro Sinaloa 2025
Are you ready? Interviewed by Veggies From Mexico, the Expo Agro Sinaloa 2025 team shares with us all the details for the next edition, same which will be held on February 12-14 at the Center for Innovation and Transfer of Farming Technology (CITT) of Fundación Produce in Aguaruto, Sinaloa, from 9:00 to 17:00 hours.
You can’t miss the Expo Agro Sinaloa, a business, research, and technology transfer-oriented event, and certainly one for significant businesses in the Farming industry!
1. Manuel García – CAADES CEO: ¿How has it been to develop many editions of Expo Agro Sinaloa and which do you consider are your most significant achievements during this time?
Expo Agro Sinaloa is born 35 years ago, when a group of farmers from Asociación de Agricultores del Río Culiacán, led back then by Jorge Kondo López, visit the Farm Progress Show, a farming expo developed in the corn belt of the United States, and that was the idea which made the Expo AARC be born.
The main purpose back then was to transfer technological innovations for grains, mostly corn, which was the crop which was positioning with a larger crop surface in the state.
Later, the model evolves by adding other groups such as produce; and is organized with the rise of Fundación Produce Sinaloa, where it takes the name of Expo Agro Sinaloa, and the work is done collaboratively with CAADES.
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With regards to achievements, the Expo Agro Sinaloa model as a technology transfer scheme has set the example to develop other Expo Agro exhibitions to a national level, which have taken this model as a benchmark.
On the other hand, it is hard to explain the technological progress in Sinaloa without the support of Expo Agro Sinaloa.
Currently, Sinaloa is a nationwide example in productivity, both in grains and in produce, as production systems have been evolving. For example, in produce, we are already sowing over eight thousand hectares (19,768 acres) of mesh shade and greenhouse, with automated production systems.
In the case of grains, despite the pitfalls for drought and international markets, we are still the state with the greatest productive potential in white non-transgenic corn, among others.
Expo Agro Sinaloa is definitively the best model in technology transfer and training in the farming sector of the state, and an important platform in agri-business development.
2. Marte Vega – CAADES Chairman: ¿Would you tell us about the next edition of Expo Agro Sinaloa?
Expo Agro Sinaloa is a business, research, and technology transfer-oriented event, and one of important business meetings.
In the next edition, we will be having the most important brands in machinery, supplies, and services and one of our strengths is that we will have an area for conferences, panels, and roundtables targeted to sustainable farming, which means, we will have experts talking about the healthy farming involved with productive aspects such as innovations, AI, technology, science, water, nutrition, fertilization, and pest control.
We will also have conferences focused on sensitive farming involving the social context, such as community development, social responsibility, and the generation of opportunities.
Also, we will have conferences focused on economical subject or solvent agriculutre, where we will discuss markets, profitability, added value, funding, and investment.
All of the above adds up to the traditional field conferences both in grains and in produce, as well as the guided tours in our greenhouse and organic farming areas.
On the last edition, we were able to train over eight thousand people, between farmers, field technicians, researchers, and students, all of this during the three days of Expo Agro. In this upcoming edition, we want to surpass that number.
3. Georgius Gotsis –Expo Agro Sinaloa Coordinator: ¿What is the main purpose and the target audience of this event?
The purpose of Expo Agro Sinaloa is to be the Forum of Innovation and Technology Transfer, a meeting point for key players of the sector; building up a space where the whole adds value to field products.
We want growers, suppliers, academics, entrepreneurs, and marketers to achieve greater businesses, by acquiring new and innovative tools and technologies that allow them to do so.
4. Georgius Gotsis – Expo Agro Sinaloa Coordinator: ¿How will the overall program be composed?
As CAADES Chairman already said, initially I believe it is worth mentioning the three different areas Expo Agro Sinaloa 2025 will be having. Of course, one of the most popular sections is the machinery area, where tractors, drones, and equipment from across Mexico and the world come to exhibit their innovations. Also, the Agrocenter area and SME Pavillion is very popular, as over one hundred companies share technology in supplies and services, which may revolutionize the farming production both in our state and in Mexico.
Attendees, both farmers and suppliers and the public will get to lunch in extremely popular local restaurants, which are here to become a part of our Expo. This year, we will also be having a machinery show with a Food Truck area on the side.
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With regards to the lectures, webinars and trainings that will be held at the conference area, we could say these are focused on four axes: healthy, sensitive, solvent and sustainable farming. We will have a variety of formats that will allow us to convey these axes, such as panels, round tables, Power Talks y keynote lectures. Also, we will be able to sign a Commitment Letter where both the public and the private sector will commit to sustainability. In the same manner, several international documentaries related to farming will be screened.
Some of the subjects and talks are: Can we get more water?; Challenges and learnings on nutrition and fertilization; From the land to the gut: Where did my nutrients go?; When to invest in farming?; Sustainable Sinaloa; among others.
We are certain that Expo Agro will be a space for learning and business opportunities for all the attendees.
5. Claudia López – Expo Agro Sinaloa Communications Coordinator: How many attendees are you expecting for this upcoming edition?
As usual, we are looking forward to having attendees across the country, mostly from the Northwest, the Lowlands and the West.
In the last edition we had an attendance of forty thousand people. This year we are estimating a higher volume during the three days of the event.
6. Claudia López – Expo Agro Sinaloa Communications Coordinator: In your experience, which have been the main business opportunities for attendees?
As Expo Agro Sinaloa we have the support of the Ministry of Economy, with which we have developed a business agenda dynamics privileging the involvement of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, which get the opportunity of having business meetings with the main business chains such as Walmart, Costco, Ley, Chedraui, Beltrán, La Cuarta, Oxxo, Chata, among other companies interested in products from Sinaloa. Also, these enterprises have the necessary support to start selling through digital channels such as Amazon, Mercado Libre, Walmart Online, to name a few.
Also, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, power talks have been developed; where attendees can be trained in areas of marketing, tax administration, and business strategy.
In the exhibition part in general, we have had a great impact when it comes to economic revenue within the event. For example, in our last edition, we were able to estimate, through our exit surveys, about two hundred million Mexican Pesos in sales within the fairgrounds during the three days of the event, making a major impact in the agrocenter, machinery, and gastronomic areas.
7. Marte Vega – CAADES Chairman: How important do you consider it is for farmers to belong to farming associations such as CAADES and what is the relevance of events such as Expo Agro?
The social and economic strength being conferred to CAADES for its over thirty thousand affiliated farmers, gives us the institutional support to represent and negotiate benefits, supports, and special conditions for farmers from Sinaloa.
Throughout the ninety-two years of our association, we have had moments of uncertainty and great challenges, facing the processes of accelerated change which have transformed the Mexican society, its economy, and the farming industry worldwide.
Given these circumstances, we have managed to keep farmers from Sinaloa united to face these challenges together, always adhered to reason and law, which has allowed us to be legitimate and strengthen ourselves.
As CAADES, we have developed a variety of services to support farmers improving their productive and market performance. Among these services we have, there is our Eleven Rivers Growers certification body and its community of farmers, Veggies From Mexico We have the logistical part in Nogales, Sonora with the CAADES trucking inspection facilities. Also, we have the defense of produce through the Commission for Produce Research and Defense – CIDH, as well as the defense of grains; and as part of the services, we have Expo Agro Sinaloa, that will turn 33 editions this February, privileging in this event the technology transfer, trainings and business meetings, all of the above in a fully business environment. So, I would like to take this space to invite you on February 12-14 of this next year to Expo Agro Sinaloa, an event that will be held at Fundación Produce Sinaloa, at the Aguaruto, Culiacán district.
8. Ramsés Meza – FPS CEO: Which crops and innovations will be introduced in the fields and greenhouses from Fundación Produce Sinaloa, home of the Expo Agro Sinaloa 2025?
For the next edition of Expo Agro Sinaloa 2025; Fundacion Produce Sinaloa has set up three demonstration areas of: The Grain Park, The Produce Park, and the Agro-Ecological Area.
At the Produce Park, attendees will be able to learn about the genetic innovations of companies: Top Seed, HIM Cloud, KWS, Seminis, and Bayer, as well as technologies from companies: DASSA, Dragon, and Koppert; both in open fields and in greenhouses. We will be able to see demonstration crops of technology for plant protection, nutrition in tomato crops, peppers, hot peppers, eggplants, broccoli, onions, cucumbers, melons, and watermelon.
At the Grain Park we will be able to observe the new corn hybrids from: Syngenta, Novasem, Genéticos, Bayer, and Dekalb; as well as the new generation fertilizer technologies, organic products, the benefits from microorganisms, and the organic-mineral fertilizers provided by companies such as: Biofom, Quimia, Agroinsumos, and Impulsora.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMyT) is also participating with a demonstration lot for agriculture of conservation.
Lastly, we will be having a technological showcase where Fundacion Produce Sinaloa technicians will be announcing the progress of their field projects, in the crops of: Corn, beans, chickpeas, sorghum, pineapple, pitahaya, among others, with subjects focused on sustainable farming, soil preservation, and the use of irrigation water.
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