This article examines the very rapid rise, consolidation, and multinationalisation of the supermarket sector in Mexico over the past decade. This development had profound impacts on fruit and vegetables supply chains. Supermarkets created their own distribution centres and contractual arrangements with growers, giving rise to supermarket supply operations by agroexport and agroindustry firms and a shift away from traditional wholesalers. The challenging requirements of selling to these new actors pose problems for small farms and firms. This article examines the case of a co-operative of small farmers that tried -and failed -to become a lime supplier to supermarket chains. It concludes with recommendations on ways to help small farmers meet the challenge of the rise of supermarkets.Important changes have occurred in Mexican food retailing in the past decade, in particular the rapid development of self-service stores in general, and supermarkets in particular.1 The rise of supermarkets has profoundly transformed the agrifood system, presenting new challenges to the whole set of people involved -farmers, wholesalers, processors, and consumers.The objective of this article is, first, to examine the rise and consolidation of supermarkets in Mexico, and secondly to examine their impact on the fresh fruit and vegetables (FFV) supply systems and the participants in them. We focus on supermarkets' procurement practices, via direct purchases in production zones, and via the public wholesale markets (the CEDAs, or public wholesale markets located in each large city). We illustrate with the case of the lime market and examine in particular the effects of the changes in the market system on small growers. It is worth noting that the * Rita Schwentesius (rsr@avantel.net) and Manuel Gómez are at the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico. The authors thank Margarita Reyes Corona and Nelida Solana Villanueva for field research assistance, and Ignacio Covarrubias Gutiérrez for information concerning the Mexican lemon in the state of Oaxaca. 1. Self-service stores include supermarkets and convenience stores (the latter smaller than 500 m 2 ), department stores, and specialised self-service shops such as pharmacies. We use the term 'supermarket' to include several formats, which we distinguish only where necessary in the text: namely, megamarkets (complete range of non-food and food items (latter about 45% of sales), with floor space exceeding 10,000 m 2 ); hypermarkets (complete range of non-food and food items (latter about 50-60% of sales), floor space between 4,500 and 10,000 m 2 ); supermarkets (mainly perishables and dry goods; food amounts to about 75% of sales, and floor space, 500 to 4,500 m 2 ); 'warehouses' with complete non-food and food product lines, austere presentation and facilities, few services, food amounts to about half of sales, floor space greater than 2,500m 2 ; and 'membership clubs' with complete line of products, wholesale and retail, and floor space greater than 4,500m 2 .
