Putting all eggs in one basket is a phrase that foreign businessmen have often discouraged their Mexican counterparts from using.

They were referring to the fact that Mexico has long kept its exports to the United States concentrated.

About four-fifths of all foreign sales of Mexican products go to the U.S. market.

All eggs in one basket

Mexico ranked ninth among the world’s largest merchandise exporters in 2023.

In 2024, Mexico exported products to the world for a customs value of 617.1 billion dollars, according to Inegi data.

To the United States, Mexican foreign sales of products were $505.851 billion, according to the Census Bureau.

Mexican businessmen frequently commented in public forums that they concentrated their exports in the United States because the large size of this market allows them to export even their entire production destined for foreign countries, at a good price and without logistical problems due to the proximity.

In other words: they accepted their comfort zone, without an alternative plan, even if this entails risks.

Diversification 

As the United States is a developed country market, with high purchasing power and open to imports, exporters who send their products there from third countries usually have the capacity to make sales in many markets around the world.

The trend of Mexican exports of goods to the United States, in millions of dollars, is shown below:

• 2020: 325,212 (-9.1% y-o-y).
• 2021: 384,649 (+18.3 percent).
• 2022: 454,775. (+18.2 percent).
• 2023: 475,216 (+4.5 percent).
• 2024: 505,851 (+6.4 percent).

These are Mexico‘s exports of products from Mexico to the world, in millions of dollars:

• 2020: 417,670 (-9.3 percent year-on-year).
• 2021: 494,225 (+18.5 percent).
• 2022: 578,193 (+16.9 percent).
• 2023: 593,012 (+2.7 percent).
• 2024: 617,100 (+4.1 percent).

Why put all your eggs in one basket? Now, with Donald Trump becoming President of the United States for the second time, many Mexican businessmen regret not having diversified their market earlier.

Playing a game of chance, it may even be that Mexico will continue to gain share in total imports of products to the United States, which was 15.5% in 2024. 

The reasonable thing to do is to diversify part of the exports. And the more the better. Some examples of diversified companies: Grupo Bimbo, Industrias Peñoles, Gruma, Nemak and Tequila Cuervo (Becle).