☀ Domingo Brief — La Presidenta Has Arrived

Welcome back to the Domingo Brief! This week, we’re keeping up with deflation in Brazil, Puerto Rican water treatment, and more.

We also want to send some love out to our friends over at the U.S.-Mexico Foundation, who invited us to attend North Capital Forum 2024 in Mexico City. With politicians, investors, and scholars in attendance, the forum provided a chance for meaningful engagement on the future of North American integration—and just in time for our newest Deep Dive on nearshoring in Mexico!

Trivia of the Week 🎯

A whopping 82% of you got it right last week: Peru is indeed the country with over 4K different varieties of potatoes. The South American county is actually considered (alongside neighboring Bolivia) as a birthplace of the crop, which today is consumed around the world after being brought to Europe by the Spanish following their colonization of the Andes.

Each week, tune back in for the answer to the previous week’s trivia question. No cheating!

🇧🇷 Brazil actually saw deflation in August of -0.02%, after 0.38% inflation the previous month. The shift was driven primarily by a drop in housing and food prices, leading to a 12-month average inflation rate of 4.4% and a 2.85% rate for 2024 thus far. Evidently, the country has seen a broader trend of price stabilization across key sectors, including for lower-income families, even as transport costs have increased in recent months.

🇨🇷🇬🇹 Starbucks is expanding its coffee holdings in Costa Rica and Guatemala, acquiring new farms to research climate-resilient coffee varieties. These farms, including one next to their existing Hacienda Alsacia in Costa Rica, will study hybrid coffee growth in various conditions and explore tech-driven solutions like mechanization and drones to address labor shortages. As part of Starbucks’ commitment to sustainable sourcing, these projects aim to boost agricultural productivity, quality, and profitability for coffee farmers, ensuring the future of high-quality Arabica beans amidst climate challenges.

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