Countries in Latam your role covers: Mexico, República Dominicana, Cuba, Chile y Perú

What are the most significant cases or transactions in the Latam region that you or your legal team has recently been involved in?

The operations we carry out in Latam are of different types:

On the one hand, we sell milk and dairy products to public organisations and companies participating in competitions and tenders; on the other, we sell dairy products with our brands. We also manufacture products for third parties with their brands — distributor or private labels — mainly for large commercial distributors in the area.

The most critical operations recently carried out are selling tons of powdered milk in Mexico and different varieties of dairy products — long-life milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt— under our own Central Lechera Asturiana brand in the Dominican Republic and under the distributor in Chile and Peru.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by the Ukraine crisis, attendant supply chain costs rising and inflation. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen, and if so, what does this entail?

Indeed, first the Coronavirus pandemic and then the crisis in Ukraine has made exports and operations around the world difficult, and therefore also in Latam, on the one hand, the problems of transport, on the other, the increase in energy supplies and on the other The increase in the cost of raw materials for livestock feed has generated a rise in the price of milk and dairy products, which means that companies must focus their efforts on two perspectives: an operational perspective, trying to ensure that in each shipment there is a greater volume of product which, together with other synergies, lowers transport cost; and a legal perspective that carefully analyses all the operations, their costs, their prices, the possible penalties generated by delays, as well as the successful conclusion of the operation with the definitive collection of the supplied products.

What are your organisation’s plans in the Latam region over the next 12 months, and how will your legal expertise help to achieve these plans?

We consider the LaAm market of maximum interest. We intend to continue the existing operations with the same clients and interlocutors, whom we already know, and to go little by little to increase the market. We believe that, in a time of crisis like the current one, we must be cautious and responsible and guarantee the excellent outcome of operations with serious and solvent operators. Likewise, we intend to continue with official operations with the states and public entities of the Latam countries where we operate, trying to increase the product volume and the number of operations.