Coffee came to Mexico from the Caribbean in the late 18th century, but it was not a grain that was exported in large quantities until the 1870s. Today, Mexico has about 100,000 small producers who reach a production of 972.000 tons of product each year. Mexico is the sixth largest producer of coffee worldwide and the leading coffee supplier to the United States.

Colombia and Brazil are the countries with the highest worldwide production with 17 million and 13.6 million tons, respectively. They are followed by Vietnam, Ethiopia and Indonesia. On the other hand, we find that the principal consumers are European countries, led by Finland, which consumes an average of 12 kgs of coffee a year, followed by Norway, Iceland and Denmark with an average consumption of 9.9, 9.1 and 8.7 kilograms per year, respectively.

In the case of Mexico, our consumption does not even reach five kgs. per year, but this is abput to change. Pablo Gonzalez Cid, a Mexican entrepreneur, creator of Café Punta del Cielo, has found a great opportunity to do so. With the introduction of his retail stores, he seeks to promote coffee consumption in the country. He seeks to offer the traditional coffee and also innovate through research and development, in order to present new options to consumers. This way he has been able to present, for example, pressurized coffee cans that keep the coffee aroma for longer, among other products they have developed.

Café Punta del Cielo, has also built the opportunity to grow internationally. Although it began in 2004 with its first store in Mexico City, this gourmet coffee now has more than 100 stores worldwide, mainly in Mexico, but with expansion now to Spain and Hong Kong also. Café Punta del Cielo’s objective is to position Mexican coffee at the height of the best in the world on the basis of knowledge, technology and innovation. In addition to this territorial expansion and growth in its number of stores, Café Punta del Cielo has become an accomplished producer, exporting its coffee to Hong Kong for Mexico’s Independence Bicentennial. Paul Gonzalez said that in addition to growth, this step “At the same time is a challenge because the standards of quality in this region potentiate our capabilities.”

According to Executive Director of the Mexican Association of Coffee Production Chain (AMECAFE, for its acronym in Spanish), the coffee sector has much to contribute, as higher levels of competitiveness, sustainable practices, social and environmental impact and an ongoing commitment to quality. Mexico has a great potential to grow as a coffee producer, and there is also an opportunity to grow in the consumption, which represents a huge area of opportunity for many entrepreneurs, as the case Pablo González.

How many other proud Mexican entrepreneurs are cause and source for new innovative markets and products?

In the growing and euphoric market of tablets devices, in which the best example is the Apple iPad; the Slate, of the Mexican Company Meebox, is making its path. We give special attention to this tablet, since its design, concept and manufacturing are of Mexican origin and distinguishes itself by its extraordinary characteristics. The Slate, designed and produced in Guadalajara, is a powerful alternative for the growing market to its closest and more famous competitors, including Apple’s iPad, Blackberry’s Playbook and Samsung’s Galaxy.

Meebox, a Mexican company with offices also in Dallas, Texas, was founded by entrepreneur Carlos Koch de Santiago, a pioneer in the electronics industry. According to him, the creator of the Slate, its product is more powerful than the iPad for its processing capacity ” It is a portable solution based on the Intel Atom processor family and we are very pleased to have the same computing power that of a laptop”. This product also has the advantage of multitasking, plus it is fully compatible with Flash, unlike Apple’s iPad. The Mexican tablet is based on the Windows 7 platform, contrary to the iPad or Blacberry’s Playbook that develop their own software, or Samsung’s Galaxy tablet that runs on Android.

During its presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the innovative Mexican product received ninety purchase orders in the first eight hours after its release, which portends a major success.

But that’s not all for Meebox. In addition to Slate, the company has introduced other advanced products that have been welcomed into the market, such as the X9 DigitalRise, or touch screen computers, like their computers Meebox Touch and Meebox Touch Pro. With a global vision, the company excels internationally to present a product that competes with companies recognized for their innovation worldwide, such as the cases of Apple, Samsung and Blackberry.

Gradually, Mexico has taken the risk of moving away from commodity export model. This has allowed the country to come forth as an important player in various industries and is gaining ground in innovation to create products of the highest quality and technology worldwide, as are also the examples of the automotive and aeronautics industries.

Mexico has an enormous potential to compete at international level not only in technology and innovation issues but in many areas that have probably not yet been studied. It’s time for Mexicans to acknowledge the creativity and ingenuity that distinguishes them, and detonate furthermore its contribution to developing innovative products for Mexico and the rest of the world.

Derived from Mexico’s manufacturing production approach, the Mexican automotive industry has experienced unprecedented growth over the past 15 years. In fact, Mexico is the tenth global automotive producer, with production of 1,591,052 units in 2009, only behind China, Japan, USA, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, India, France and Spain, in that order.

According to a study by AT Kearney, Mexico can aspire to a growth in its automotive industry by 2015 from U.S. $ 78 billion dollars, and in 2030 of $ 118 billion, which would triple the industries actual value and will represent a much higher growth rate than those countries who lead the global production. This growth will occur because Mexico can attract -in the short term- investment in auto parts companies that are now in countries like the United States, Canada and Japan. According to this study, Mexico must focus on attracting Asian automakers to the suppliers of commercial vehicles, suppliers to enter Chapter 11 seek to increase its cost competitiveness, and technology companies that can boost technological development in the country. Additionally, to these investments, it is important to note that there is still enough room for suppliers that are already in Mexico to increase their production plants in the country, especially for the European producers.

However, being a worldwide leader automobile producer has generated innovation that has spilled over to the development of proudly Mexican high performance cars, like the Mastretta. Mastretta cars are a division of the company Tecnoidea SAPI de CV, a Mexican engineering and design based in Mexico City. The company has over 20 years experience in the transportation industry, where through creativity, innovation and technology assists other companies to create from concept to successful product development.

The Mastretta MXT is a manual five speed car, with a four in line cylinder motor which reaches a maximum speed of 149 miles per hour. The production of these high performance cars will not only demonstrate the progress that Mexico has achieved, both in engineering and vehicle design, but also Mexico’s importance in the global automotive industry.

Mexico is a country listed in the auto industry as one of the largest producers with higher growth potential and is also beginning to dabble in high-performance cars. The results of leaving behind being a commodities export country and focusing in high value added manufacturing is starting to reap benefits and innovation and entrepreneurship are blooming. Let´s acknowledge our accomplishments and just distinguish what it takes to reach the next level.

As surprising as it may seem, chewing gum or chicle is a worldwide popular product that resulted from the friendship of former Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and the American scientist and inventor, Thomas Adams.

Santa Anna was a Mexican political leader, general and was President on eleven non-consecutive occasions, who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government. He lived in exile in the USA and other countries.

It was during the time he lived in the USA that he met Thomas Adams, who later became his assistant. During this time, Santa Anna brought in the first shipment of chicle into the USA aiming to replace rubber in carriage tires, which was tried by Adams without success.

Later on, while Adams attempted to make toys, masks, rain boots, and bicycle tires out of chicle without any luck, he was struck by the idea that perhaps chicle could be used for the production of chewing gum as he had frequently seen his friend Santa Anna do.

This was not a surprise since chicle was well known to ancient Mexicans -such as the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs and the Mayan- for its subtle flavor and high sugar content. Chicle is the natural gum from Manilkara chicle, which is a tropical evergreen tree native to Mexico and Central America. The tapping of the gum is similar to the tapping of latex from the rubber tree.

Mr. Adams then experimented with chicle and transformed the chewing gum made of paraffin wax into one made of pure chicle gum without any flavor. It was made in little penny sticks and wrapped in various colored tissue papers. He added sugar to the chicle creating the forerunner gum known as chewing gum, so shush, which is still popular today.

The ancient word is still used in the Americas, chicle being a common name for chewing gum in Spanish.

Chicle is a gift to the World and a result of Mexican and American friendship and collaboration, as well as the wonderful things we can create together. What wonderful things do we want to create this time?

The West Virginia District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration has singled out a Charleston salsa maker for honors.

Maria Magdalena “Maggie” De La Cruz Cook-Garcia has been named the West Virginia Small Business Administration’s “2009 Young Entrepreneur of the Year.”

Cook-Garcia is the owner and operator of Maggie’s Salsa, a salsa that is unusual because it is never cooked. Cook-Garcia learned how to make the salsa when she was growing up in Mexico, helping prepare meals for her 68 siblings, most of whom were adopted by her parents, who run an orphanage.

Read the full story here.