We publish this page because a data product is only as useful as your ability to judge it. Everything below is what we actually measure, including the parts that are weaker than we would like.
1. Where the data comes from
| Market | Basis for inclusion | Product detail | Import volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | Customs operation records, licensed from commercial trade-data providers, cross-checked against the SAT importers register | Yes, to 6-digit tariff code | Yes, customs value |
| Argentina | Public foreign-trade records published by the national customs authority | Yes, to national tariff code | Yes |
| Brazil | Federal company register, historical foreign-trade records, regulated-sector authorisations, and the government's own importers catalogue | Sector level for the full base; 6-digit tariff code for the 7,467 companies in the public catalogue | Published bands only, for catalogue companies |
Company details, addresses, activity codes and business contact points are enriched from official company registers, regulated-sector authorisations, business directories and publicly available company websites.
Brazil is deliberately different, and you should understand why. Brazilian law protects transaction-level customs detail. We do not hold, and will not supply, shipment-level records or company-level import values for Brazil. Anyone offering you that is worth a second look — there is an enforcement record behind this restriction.
What we do have is the Catálogo de Importadores Brasileiros, published by the Brazilian government precisely so that foreign suppliers can find Brazilian importers. It gives us 7,467 companies with their imported products at 6-digit tariff level — around 78% of national import volume — plus the import band each company self-declared. That is a public, purpose-built source and we use it as intended.
The honest limitation: the catalogue's current edition is older than our Mexican and Argentine operations data, and inclusion is voluntary self-registration rather than the complete importer universe. Every Brazilian deliverable states its vintage on the first page. We would rather you know that than discover it later.
2. How current it is
Mexican and Argentine operation records run through May 2026. Customs data is inherently retrospective: there is a lag of roughly two months between an operation and its appearance in the record, and recent months can still receive corrections.
Within that window we can tell you which companies were active during 2026 and which began importing during 2026. Every deliverable states its capture window on the first page.
What we sell is the relationship between a company and a product category, which changes slowly. We do not sell, and you should not buy, last week's individual shipment.
3. What coverage to expect
Coverage is not uniform, and it improves as company size increases. Measured across the Mexican base:
| Segment | Business contact point | Named purchasing contact |
|---|---|---|
| Importing above US$100M per year | 89% | 31% |
| Importing above US$10M per year | 87% | 23% |
| Importing above US$1M per year | 82% | 8% |
| Full base | 73% | Limited |
Read this before you buy. A business contact point means a company telephone number, website or company email address — that is the layer with high coverage and it is what every deliverable is built on. A named purchasing contact is a specific person with a role; coverage is partial and concentrated in larger accounts. We quote it as "where available" and we do not promise it for every record. If a named contact for every company is what you need, say so before ordering and we will tell you honestly whether we can serve you.
4. Why we exclude captive importers
A large share of Latin American import volume is intra-company: an assembly plant bringing in components from its own parent abroad. Those companies rank high by volume and will never buy from a new supplier. Selling them to you as prospects would inflate the count and waste your time.
We identify and separate them using location and operating pattern. The effect is large and it varies sharply by product. In passenger vehicles the filter removes around 85% of records; in industrial valves it removes around 16%. Every deliverable reports how many records the filter removed, so you can see what you are getting and what you are not.
The filter is a statistical judgement, not a certainty. A company we classify as captive may occasionally buy externally, and vice versa. We would rather give you a shorter, honest list.
5. Known limitations
- No import volumes for Brazil, by design and by law. See above.
- Named purchasing contacts are partial. Coverage figures are published above rather than buried.
- Customs value is not FOB. Mexican figures are declared customs value, which is closer to CIF and includes freight and insurance depending on terms. They are not directly comparable to national statistical FOB series.
- Company identity resolution is imperfect. Names in customs records are inconsistently spelled and legal identifiers are not always present in the source. We resolve them with multiple concordant signals, and a residual share remains unresolved.
- Sole proprietors. Where an importer is an individual rather than a company, we treat the record as personal data and restrict how it is used and published. See our privacy notice.
- Absence is not proof. A company missing from a deliverable may have imported under a name or code we did not match, or through a third party.
6. Update cadence
Each market is refreshed on a rolling basis as its source publishes. Monitoring is delivered in quarterly cycles, which matches the real cadence of the underlying record: billing monthly would sell you noise rather than change.
If you find an error in something we sold you, write to [email protected]. We will correct it and reissue.