Flavour of Mexico comes to Neepawa

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Flavour of Mexico comes to Neepawa

Details: Published on Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Photo by Kira Paterson. The Mayor of Salvatierra, Jose Herlindo Velazquez, and Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Robert Sopuck exchanged gifts during their meeting on Sept. 1.

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Last week, Neepawa welcomed some very important international delegates. From Aug. 27 to Sept. 3, a Mexican delegation from the City of Salvatierra, Guanajuato, came to Manitoba on a trade mission sponsored by HyLife and their partner Mercator Inc. The World Trade Centre (WTC) in Winnipeg hosted the visitors, who also came to Neepawa for a few days during their mission.

The delegation consisted of representatives for the City of Salvatierra, including their mayor, Jose Herlindo Velazquez, as well as representatives from the Mercator company.

The purpose of the trip was to strengthen the partnership between HyLife, Mercator and the communities of Salvatierra and Neepawa. The city of Salvatierra is also interested in signing a sisterhood agreement with Neepawa, so the visit was an opportunity to further explore an agreement.

While in Neepawa, the 10 delegates from Mexico met with local dignitaries, including Robert Sopuck, MP of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa, Eileen Clarke, MLA of Agassiz, and Neepawa Mayor Adrian de Groot. The visit included business meetings as well as industry tours in both Neepawa and Winnipeg, including a tour of CentrePort Canada.

On Thursday, Sept. 1, the delegates, along with local dignitaries and representatives from HyLife and WTC, were at the Neepawa Administrative Office for a media event to let the community know what’s going on and answer any questions about the trade mission.

Grant Lazuruk, CEO of HyLife, noted that Mexico is an important customer to the company. Mexico is a big consumer of pork products and they use parts of the ham that most Canadians don’t use. He went on to explain the food called chicharron, which is deep fried pork rinds, is a popular food in Mexico, but HyLife’s Canadian plants don’t have the capability to produce it and ship it to Mexico. HyLife purchased a plant in a city neighbouring Salvatierra last fall and own the plant jointly with Mercator. Lazuruk explained that having this plant allows them to be able to offer these products to their buyers in Mexico as well as develop their relationship with Salvatierra.

Mayor Velazquez commented that even though their city is a small part of Mexico, it is becoming a large part of their industry. He noted that the potential Neepawa partnership is important because the two communities are helping each other grow through their trade. When asked what stood out for him during this visit, he noted that he has seen the importance of exchanging culture between countries. He also enjoyed seeing the technology used in so much of the agriculture in Manitoba, among other things.

Eileen Clarke stated that on a provincial level, the Manitoba Government is very interested in doing more business provincially, nationally and internationally. “Our Premier Brian Pallister has said we are open for business,” she said, adding this trade mission will allow them to build up Manitoba’s economy as well as make new partners and friends.

Sopuck pointed out that this region, and rural Manitoba in general, is very dependent on trade, especially trade of agricultural goods. He said that Mexico is on its way to being in the top 10 best economies in the world and that it’s important that Manitoba and Canada as a whole deepen their ties with countries like Mexico. He also congratulated Neepawa, WTC and HyLife on coordinating the tour and continuing to expand the private sector.

Mayor Velazquez said afterwards that meeting with representatives of Manitoba and Neepawa specifically was very important them, because he and the rest of the delegates wanted to share their culture with Canada. He was very impressed with everyone’s willingness to listen and it’s been important to them in deciding how to explore relationships with other countries.

As for what a partnership with Salvatierra would mean for the community of Neepawa, Mayor de Groot reiterated the point that Mayor Velazquez made earlier that the partnership is a win-win situation. He said that Neepawa needs to make sure it’s also contributing value to the relationship, promote that it is mutually beneficial and make sure it’s proud of the contribution it makes to the agreement.

He added that they have not decided yet whether they will send representatives from Neepawa to Salvatierra in the future, but they are going to let the relationship grow first. In addition, no sisterhood agreement is going to be signed yet, but he is excited about the opportunity to do so in the future.

Pictured from left: Alberto Velasco of the World Trade Centre in Winnipeg; Mexican delegates Fransisco Guerrero, Roberto Magana, Marcelo Garcia, and Luisa Martinez; Agassiz MLA Eileen Clarke; Neepawa Mayor Adrian de Groot; Salvatierra Mayor Jose Herlindo Velazquez; Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Robert Sopuck; Mexican delegation members Estela Garcia and Araceli Herrera; Trevor Lizotte, Vice President - International and Domestic Sales at HyLife and Grant Lazaruk, CEO of HyLife.