When someone unfamiliar with the agricultural industry thinks of agriculture, they may imagine small growers, some of them still using antiquated technologies.  And indeed, thousands of growers in Mexico and the world are small but increasingly have access to better varieties, better-growing techniques, and most importantly better marketing.

Also, as we have shared many times in this space, some growers have high innovation, technology, and advanced varieties, with good use of food safety and social responsibility; growers who are partners or owners of large exporting companies that use greenhouses, drip irrigation, long shelf-life varieties, traceability processes in the cloud, among others. 

On the other hand, some important companies and corporations are somehow related to agriculture and are even listed on the stock exchange.  Let us share some of them, such as the multinationals that sell fertilizers and agrochemicals.

Some of them are well known, such as SQM with a value market (VM) of 21 billion dollars; Corteva with a 45 billion dollars MMA; FMC with a 16.2 billion dollars MMA, among others.  There are also suppliers of equipment and machinery such as AGCO Corporation with a 9 billion dollars VDM. It is the owner, among many businesses, of Maseey Ferguson and Challenger.  Another important company is John Deere with 109 billion dollars DMV; we know it for its tractors, but it is also a leader in “digital agriculture”, which includes satellite imaging, and information management to generate forecasts, among others.

There are also large corporations involved in fresh food production and marketing.  A good example is Fresh Del Monte, a grower, and marketer of fruits and vegetables with a 1.5 billion dollars VDM.  Another example is Calavo Growers, founded in 1924, which is an important producer and distributor of avocados and tomatoes, papayas, and other fresh produce. It has a 563 million dollars VDM.

Other publicly traded companies may not be as well-known but contribute significantly to the sector.  Novozymes is an example of this, with a 11.6 billion dollars VDM, which, among other things, is a grower of biological inputs, which have been booming in recent years.  There are small companies such as Local Bounti Corporation, with only a VDM of 53 million dollars, but which are already listed on the stock exchange.  They, for example, produce different types of lettuce in hydroponics with vertical agriculture for sale in the United States.   It is worth mentioning that the private company Cargill injected 200 million dollars into Bounti as an investment.

And of course, we cannot leave aside the companies related to what is the basis of life, of our planet, and, of course, of agriculture, which is water.  One example is Consolidates Water Company with a VDM of 263 million dollars.  It is dedicated to water treatment and desalination, the latter being a fundamental process for regions with water supply problems suitable for irrigation, but with access to salt water. 

So, this is a very brief example of dozens of companies related to the agricultural sector that are going public; innovating, and offering more possibilities for growers and consumers.