Today we’re talking with Andrés Díaz Bedolla, who has dedicated his career to connecting Latin American companies with global value chains. His journey began at ProMéxico, where he focused on attracting investment and promoting trade for the Mexican government. His passion for advancing Latin America took him to China, where he completed a master’s degree in economics and founded a company that operated for eight years, working closely with the Alibaba Group and selling to the Chinese government. Later, he joined Alibaba, leading global initiatives for Alibaba.com, the world’s largest B2B platform. Although he initially saw Alibaba as a tool to integrate Latin American suppliers into global supply chains, he soon realized it wasn’t suited to the specific needs of Latin America This realization led him to leave Alibaba in December 2022 and found Yumari, with the mission of understanding and improving the situation of manufacturers in Latin America and helping them integrate into the value chains of North American companies.
What does Yumari do, and what problem are you solving?
Latin America is 25 years behind in the professionalization and digitization of manufacturers’ commercial and exportable offerings. Today, as the world talks about the opportunity to relocate supply chains to Latin America, also known as nearshoring, companies face significant challenges. Companies say, “Yes, I want to reduce risk in my value chain, yes, I want to relocate my supply chain and explore the possibility of integrating Latin American suppliers into my chains.” They are very concerned that the cost of a container from China to the US has jumped from $1,700 to $7,000 in recent weeks. They’re also worried about a potential conflict in China or an economic blockade, or that Trump might return to power and impose a 200% tax on some products they’re importing. These are some of the concerns North American business leaders have.
The most logical response would be to explore suppliers in Latin America. However, the major obstacle is that factories in the region are neither professionalized nor digitized, making it difficult to integrate these suppliers into their value chains.
This is where Yumari comes in. We are a digital platform where international buyers can upload their requests for quotes, specifying what they need, how much they want to buy, when they need it, and where they are located. We take care of everything from selecting the factory, audits, sampling, production, and quality control, to export and import, and the registration of the transaction. We deliver to warehouses and also handle last-mile delivery in the US.
How big is the market, and what type of client can Yumari help?
We are currently working with D2C brands, that is, brands and companies that sell directly to consumers. These companies have grown significantly in recent years; in the US alone, 180,000 D2C brands have been created in the last decade. These brands don’t rely on retailers or marketplaces; they sell directly through platforms like Shopify, TikTok Shops, Instagram, and Facebook Marketplace. They are companies with good margins, investing heavily in advertising, and they have greater control over their products and margins.
Of these 180,000 brands in the US, 60% are in the apparel and textile category, followed by food and beverage, beauty and personal care (the fastest-growing category right now), wellness, health, and home decor. Yumari focuses on these categories, with a strong emphasis on textiles and apparel.
Out of those 180,000 brands, about 10% sell more than $150,000 per month. A company that sells between $150,000 and $350,000 per month is an ideal client for Yumari, because while they are growing, they are still small and don’t have specialized teams for supply chain, purchasing, or international operations. That’s where we come in: we become their operational arm and take care of everything, ensuring they always have products available to sell.
The best problem our clients face when they come to us is that they could sell more, but they aren’t because they don’t have enough product and their supply chain is a mess. We step in to solve that problem.
How do you ensure quality and efficiency throughout this process?
All our suppliers go through a rigorous selection process, and we constantly check them against 540 international blacklists. If at any point they appear on any of these lists, we remove them from the platform until we investigate what happened. We also manage quality controls in production at the start, halfway through, and at the end, just before closing the boxes for shipping. We oversee all these quality controls.
It’s important to note that we’re not just a giant database of suppliers across all industries. We work with partner factories with which we have a close relationship, and our goal is to increase our share of their production capacity. Currently, we work with about 60 factories in Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, which are our strategic partners. We deeply engage in the process to understand how we can help them because, to make a good match between buyers and sellers, it’s necessary to work on the digitization of these suppliers. Instead of constantly seeking new factories, we focus on increasing our share of the production capacity of those we already work with.
What advantages does Latin America offer over Asia?
In Latin America, we offer high-quality, diversified products that you can’t find elsewhere, like Colombian nylon for swimwear, Peruvian Pima Cotton, alpaca wool for sweatshirts from Bolivia, and denim from Mexico. The same applies to food and beverages; Mexico is the third-largest exporter in the world of skincare products, makeup, and health care products.
It’s also important to consider import taxes on Chinese products, rising transportation costs, and other factors that make production in Latin America competitive, especially if you’re looking for quality, visibility, and traceability in your supply chain, as well as social responsibility in manufacturing. If you want to ensure that the factories producing your products comply with all sustainability, equity, and labor regulations, that’s exactly what we’re doing in Latin America. The truth is, this is much harder to achieve when manufacturing in Asia.
How do you see the future of nearshoring in Mexico and Latin America?
The trend is clear: many companies are moving their supply chains to Latin America. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in cross-border payments, digitization of exportable offerings, and efficient logistics. The real value of nearshoring isn’t just in attracting foreign direct investment but in integrating local suppliers into value chains. This allows for the transfer of technology, knowledge, and talent, and truly generates value for the countries in Latin America. For Yumari, it’s crucial not only to attract new companies but also to ensure that these companies integrate local suppliers into their supply chains, helping them to develop and compete at the same level.
What are Yumari’s biggest challenges at the moment?
The challenges are many. The lack of professionalization in some factories makes it difficult to find suppliers who quote on time, meet production deadlines, and deliver on time. A major challenge is transactions; while platforms like Alibaba offer multiple payment options for Chinese suppliers, in Latin America, the only option is often international bank transfer, which isn’t as attractive to buyers.
The main challenges are infrastructure and logistical efficiency, the ability to facilitate secure and straightforward payments for buyers and sellers, and the professionalization of our suppliers to ensure that we work only with the best, meeting the demands of international buyers.
What’s next for Yumari in the next 6 months?
Right now, we’re focused on selling. We closed a funding round last June and started selling in October. We expect to reach $150,000 in monthly sales by the end of this year, to raise our seed round. Currently, we produce for most of the D2C brands in Mexico and manage their supply chains. Our next step is to expand into D2C brands in the US and broaden our categories.
This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)
