From Mexico and Back in the Refrigerated Section
Interview with Konrad Boltersdorf, Managing Director of Agora America GmbH
Under the brand SOLPURO, Agora America GmbH distributes high-quality guacamole made from Mexican avocados and also supplies large food retailers and restaurant chains with various private labels. Managing Director Konrad Boltersdorf spoke with Wirtschaftsforum about the numerous challenges of transcontinental supply chains and current market trends.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Boltersdorf, with the SOLPURO brand, Agora America GmbH has brought original Mexican guacamole to the German refrigerated shelf. What challenges have you encountered in this process?
Konrad Boltersdorf: The most difficult aspect is certainly sourcing. Our avocados are consistently harvested in Mexico and then immediately processed and preserved there. Because if one really wants to focus on authentic and high-quality avocado products, one cannot simply switch to more easily obtainable alternatives, such as those from Spain. In order to not alter the taste experience, we rely exclusively on suppliers in our supply chain who use the high-pressure process and completely avoid artificial preservatives. All this makes value creation somewhat more expensive — just like transport by sea, which also comes with certain lead times, making our planning more complex.
Wirtschaftsforum: An effort that is appreciated by consumers?
Konrad Boltersdorf: We see ourselves as extremely quality-conscious manufacturers and can indeed recognize that consumers are willing to pay the inevitably higher prices – both for our own brand SOLPURO and for the private label products we produce for various customers in the retail food industry. The same applies to our products with which we serve out-of-home distribution channels, such as restaurants.
Wirtschaftsforum: Yet, the German food market is generally considered to be very price-sensitive.
Konrad Boltersdorf: I certainly do not disagree with that impression – there are indeed other providers trying to enter the market with similar product categories at the lowest possible prices. However, our claim is different and even our customers – from grocery retailers to large restaurant chains – set strict requirements that a supplier must meet, including comprehensive audits of our production facilities in Mexico. Also, the reliable compliance with regulations resulting from the supply chain due diligence law is anything but trivial in a transcontinental value creation. It's far from sufficient to just physically move a product from A to B, which would be complex enough in our segment.
Wirtschaftsforum: What role does sustainability play in your business sector?
Konrad Boltersdorf: We have the great advantage that we didn’t just hastily jump onto topics like social compliance and carbon neutrality yesterday, but have always lived these convictions as an essential part of our business model. We have always placed great importance on ensuring that wages paid in our production facilities are at least 15% above the tariff salary. I just visited our facilities in Mexico again last year and it is quite impressive to see that basically the whole region there lives off avocado production. Fair treatment of all people involved in the creation of the products they consume is also becoming increasingly important to most consumers in Germany – just like ecological sustainability and the greatest possible naturalness of their food. That's why we now also offer organic guacamole.
Wirtschaftsforum: Will you expand your product range in the future?
Konrad Boltersdorf: In addition to our guacamole, we also have corn tortillas in our range, which we produce with similar effort. For the future, I see further growth potential for us, especially in the wake of the general trend towards healthier and more conscious eating, which will also reflect in further diversification of our product range. Not only in Germany, but we are also experiencing an increasing openness to ethnofoods and the rich culinary arts that various world regions have to offer. German consumers have realized that this opens up limitless creativity in the kitchen. We also see attractive markets in other countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, and the Scandinavian countries, where we want to serve with our high-quality products.
Wirtschaftsforum: What do you consider the most important basis for your further growth?
Konrad Boltersdorf: A great product! Our entire team is genuinely excited about what we produce – and can therefore convince authentically!