Walmart is the largest private corporation in the world, according to the Fortune Global 500 list of 2017, with almost 11,000 stores under 65 brands in 28 countries and has e-commerce websites in 11 countries
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, August 2018 (IICA). Within the framework of a strategic partnership, the Dominican Delegation of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD), received a commercial mission from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart).
Walmart is a multinational corporation of stores of American origin and acquires its products from stores in different countries of Central and Latin America. During the first days of August, the Walmart Central America and Mexico mission, composed by Oscar Delgado, Regional Supply Manager of Central America and Mexico and Marcos Salas, Supply Manager of Costa Rica made several visits to identify potential agricultural items produced in the Dominican Republic in order to explore the feasibility of supplying their stores in five countries of Central America and Mexico.
The agenda of this mission was prepared and coordinated along with the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD), which identified producers and organizations of avocado, Persian lemon and vegetables; which were the items identified as interest of the Walmart mission.
Apart from knowing the production methods of the farms and the quality of the identified products, the Walmart mission showed interest in knowing the types of producer organizations and how they prepared agricultural products for export.
The producers organizations interacted with the Walmart mission the aspects related to the volume, frequency, packaging, forms of payments and Walmart availability in acquiring the identified products to supply their stores. They also exchanged contact information to finalize details about the methodology and process to follow to explore the possibility of starting a commercial relationship between Walmart and the organizations.
The mission showed great satisfaction with the visits made. It established the commitments with the organizations to start sending samples of the identified products to place them in the Walmart stores in Costa Rica, in order to evaluate the acceptance of the clients. From these reactions, Walmart will establish purchase and sales commitments with these organizations and other potential producers.
More information: Hector Garibaldis Perez, Specialist in Agribusiness, hector.perez@iica.int
