By The Star Staff
The Chamber of Food Marketing, Industry and Distribution (MIDA) will present the 2025 Economic Projections for the Food Industry, as part of its Christmas cocktail seminar.
The event will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 11, starting at 1:30 p.m., at the Puerto Rico Convention Center in Isla Grande. The projections will be led by Prof. Luis R. Benítez Hernández, the chief economist of economic intelligence and director of MIDA’s economic studies division.
Benítez has served throughout his professional career as research assistant on the Puerto Rico Planning Board, Management and Budget analyst, member of the technical team of former Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón’s Infrastructure Council, co-chairman of the Special Commission on Fiscal and Tax Reform of 2005 and, on two occasions, president of the Economists Association.
In addition, he is the chairman of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority governing board and commissioner of the Minimum Wage Commission as an economist representing the private sector.
Benítez holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Puerto Rico.
The event will also feature a presentation by Tatiana Irizarry Hilera, sales leader at Nielsen IQ, who will talk about global and local consumer trends and the outlook for 2025, under the theme: “Mid-Year Consumer Outlook Guide to 2025 by NielsenIQ.” Analyzing the findings presented will be Eduardo Marxuach, president and CEO of Econo Inc., along with Rafael A. Álvarez, vice president of sales and marketing at Méndez & Co. Inc.
“In Puerto Rico, six out of 10 dollars of the [average household] budget are allocated to transportation, housing and food, with an average monthly expenditure on food and household products of $452, as we saw in Consumer Survey 2024,” MIDA President Félix Aponte said. “We have seen the slowdown in food inflation as a positive indicator, but it is important to be attentive to the changes that may come with the political environment in Washington at this time.”
In this regard, he noted that MIDA’s Christmas Cocktail Seminar has positioned itself as a crucial event for business plans for 2025.
Aponte added that with the event, “MIDA offers expert analysis so that entrepreneurs in the Puerto Rican Food Industry have real expectations of what they will face in the new year and draw up strategies that allow them to continue making it possible for food to reach the tables of Puerto Ricans.”
MIDA has represented the food sector in Puerto Rico since 1980. It brings together supermarkets, wholesalers, distributors, processors, agro-industrialists and affiliates.
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