New beverages companies are exploding into the marketplace all over the world. Mexico is not the exception, it's the rule.

Mexico is the great consumer, and beverages are what Mexicans like the most. You see, Mexico is on the top of the list of most beverage categories when talking consumption per capita and as a nation.

When visiting retail supermarkets and convenience stores in Mexico like Soriana, Wal-Mart, Costco, Comercial Mexicana, OXXO, Extra, 7-ELEVEN, Sam's Club, HEB, Gigante or other accounts you will be amazed of the retail space given to beverage.

Last week I took several CEO's from international marketing firms to Mexico City to some of these retail chains. Their first comment was "Wow, look at all this soda"! I'm talking about pallet after pallet on the retail floor filled with soda, water, tea, new age beverages, water and every type of beverage you can imagine. Not just in Pallets, shelve after shelve filled with beverages not just 6 feet tall, in some hallways up to 12 feet tall.

Beverage exports to Mexico are underrepresented with a mere $147,000,000 per year being exported from the USA to Mexico. This shows a Trade Deficit of $2 Billion Dollars in Beverage worth of good. Now, this is the "declared value" and not wholesale or retail value of goods, that's much higher.

Selling beverages to Mexico is easier than ever, especially exporting from the USA. Mexico is the #1 importer of US products in the world. There is a need for all types of products including energy drinks, beer, water, flavored water, wine, soda and spirits.

Yes, Coca Cola (FEMSA) is in Mexico as is Pepsi Cola, Nestle and other very large companies, the largest, that is. But that's it. Nobody of the other US or European beverage players are there. We're talking a growing, emerging economy of $1.3 Trillion US dollars. We're talking the gate to the rest of Latin America, the third largest economy in the world!

Mexico posts the greatest export opportunity for every US beverage company large and small. It has all the ingredients of a great customer. It has a great infrastructure including roads and ports to ship truckloads of products, many beverage distributors selling to supermarkets and convenience stores and more than 500,000 stores willing and able to buy new products throughout Mexico.

Mexicans are so eager to buy that they come to the USA looking for products instead of waiting around for someone to call them and sell them something. They visit US trade shows, organizations and many companies. I constantly have someone in San Diego visiting from Mexico to speak with me on how they can find products of all kinds to export.

Who's looking for new beverages? Mainly wholesale distributors and large retailers. They are looking for beverages to sell in retail stores or to other distributors in Mexico, most of the time they will buy truckloads and export them to Mexico themselves, handling the shipping, imports and tariffs.

All you have to do is travel through the halls of Wal-Mart or Costco in Mexico to see how many products are still missing in the shelves. Products available in the USA in every single city.

Why do they do this? Why are they so eager to buy US drinks? Simple, they don't have Mexican made products they can sell and they want to be the first to carry a new American beverage. They know if they are the first to market with a new product they can make a lot of money very fast. After that they just restock their customer's shelves and refrigerators.

Mexico should be number 1 on the "To do list" of every small, medium and large Beverage Company in the world. If it's not in your list, quickly, write it in with pen, bring it to your next board meeting along with some of the facts listed in the article, sit back and look good!