Mexico far from goal on Alibaba e-commerce deal: official

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s deal with China’s biggest e-commerce company, Alibaba, to increase online business for exports like avocados and tequila needs the participation of dozens more companies to make it successful, an official at Mexican trade group Promexico said in an interview.

So far, 24 companies have been approved to export to businesses in China and other countries as paying members on business-to-business platform Alibaba.com, Carlos Alvarez, a project coordinator at government trade and investment group Promexico, told Reuters this week.

Alibaba is waiting for 100 Mexican vendors to join before launching a country-specific site known as a “pavilion” on its wholesale platform that would showcase Mexican products on a single web page, Alvarez said.

The Mexican government signed a deal with Alibaba last September to help small- and mid-sized businesses enter Mexico’s nascent e-commerce industry alongside mega players including Wal-Mart de Mexico and Amazon Inc.

Alibaba said in a statement that it was committed to “helping them participate in global trade through e-commerce and the use of technology.”

Part of Promexico’s task is convincing companies that gaining access to Alibaba is worth taking on complex logistics and high shipping and insurance costs, Alvarez said.

“They’re scared of coming because it’s expensive. But once they’re there, they can take off,” he said.