Mexico City — Pioneering Mexican biocomposites developer BioSolutions SA de CV plans to offer its products in the lucrative United States market as its founder and CEO Ana Laborde admits trying to convince companies in Mexico of the benefits of the technology has been a hard slog.
"We are the first bioplastics company in Mexico," she told Plastics News in a March 22 telephone interview. "You have to open markets and for many years it has been a challenge in Mexico to try to explain the benefits of bioplastics. It's a different story in the United States. They are already using bioplastics and know the benefits."
Referring to the company that she started in Monterrey, northern Mexico, in 2010, she said: "We see our growth outside Mexico. We're planning to start in the United States and in other countries in Latin America."
She added that the company is already working on the best go-to market strategy.
"Our plan is to do some market research and try to understand who our customers will be in the United States and to understand the size of the [packaging] segment," she said.
The research should be ready by the end of the year and BioSolutions may be ready to approach the U.S. market in 2019, the 37-year-old entrepreneur said.
BioSolutions mixes agave bagasse with polypropylene and with high and low density polyethylene. Laborde did not disclose BioSolutions' sales nor the names of some of its customers.
On its website, however, BioSolutions has posted images of several products. One shows a polypropylene food tray with a Coca-Cola logo. Another image is a PP cup with a lid and the words "del Valle" emblazoned on the side. Jugos del Valle became part of the Industria Mexicana de Coca-Cola in 2007.
Other customers include the Fagro Group, which BioSolutions says was the first agrochemical company to use bio-based natural fiber bottles.
