Tortilla king: Gruma, a heavyweight in the Mexican food world, shoots for growing Asian markets.

Mexican food is one of the most recognized cuisines in the world. So much so, Mexico is asking the United Nations to declare it a world heritage cuisine. And what would a Mexican kitchen be without tortillas--that flat, round bread made of corn or wheat symbolic of the Mexican diet?

Gruma, the largest producer of corn flour tortillas in the world, knows a lot about what Mexicans eat. The US$2.50 billion company is moving quickly toward global expansion. At the beginning of the year, the 15,000-employee company bought Australian tortilla-maker Rositas Investments for $13.3 million. In August, Gruma will inaugurate a plant in Shanghai, break ground on another plant in Japan and get ready to open a plant in Russia. Asia and Oceania are in the crosshairs; Gruma wants to bring corn flour, corn tortillas, wheat tortillas, snacks and related foods it makes to the Far East and beyond.

"China is an enormous phenomena. We are going to have to work with them in terms of business or investment, like it or not, because together with the U.S., it drives the world's economy," Roberto Gonzalez Barrera, Gruma's chairman and CEO, said at a seminar in March.

The idea seems preposterous at first. Yet the company expects to sell products through fast-food chains and restaurants, a more probable proposition, especially if Gruma could expand into other, more traditional channels. The business model doesn't stop with China's large domestic market. Gruma will use China as a massive springboard to the rest of Asia, home to half of the world's population, according to Gonzalez Barrera.

Closer to home, Gruma last year bought a corn-flour plant in Guatemala. It also bought La Tapatia, a California tortilla maker, while selling a 40% stake in Molinos Nacionales in Venezuela. It has even studied the possibility of going into Africa.

On top of the global buying spree, the company consolidated all of its operations in Mexico, the United States, Central America and Europe, where it runs plants in the United Kingdom, Holland and Italy. The U.S. division, Gruma Corporation, plays a considerable role in Europe, controlling 20% of the market. "Gruma has been a very successful company in the United States, home to 50% of its sales [and 60% of its total revenue]," says Jose Eduardo Estrada, an analyst at Banamex Citigroup.

Last year, Gruma opened its 25th plant in the United States, in Pennsylvania, at a $33.9 million investment, adding to those in Texas, Indiana, Kentucky and California, among others. The company wants to double its size in the U.S. market by 2009.

The United States has been a success story in terms of demand for tortillas, and not just from Mexican and other Latin American consumers. According to a study conducted in 2004 by Mexican brokerage Santander Serfin, tortilla consumption rose 7% there while bread consumption rose by only 1%.

Homesick. Gruma Corporation produces and distributes two main tortilla brands in the United States as well as 20 varieties of corn flour under the Maseca brand. Two of the most successful products from Mexgrocer, which sells nonperishable foods over the Internet in the United States and Puerto Rico, contain Maseca corn flour. One is used to make tamales, a pastry rolled and cooked in corn flour, and the other is for tortillas.

"We decided to cater mainly to the Hispanic market with Mexican products because they were successful, due to the homesickness that comes from living far from home," says Ignacio Hernandez, Mexgrocer's president. "But the interesting thing is that now, half of our clients are native to the U.S."

Rival Bimbo also competes in the U.S. market, although not at Gruma's level. In the state of California, Gruma controls 70% of the market. Bimbo has a 20% market share and operates only in that state, according to industry analysts.

A look at Mexico's corn production illustrates Gruma's size in its home market. "Seventy-two percent of the nation's farming sector is involved in corn. Of that total production, 40% goes to agribusinesses, or in other words, to make tortillas," says Jaime Yesaki, president of Mexico's national agribusiness council. On average every year, Gruma buys 17%-1.7 million tons--of that corn.

MARISOL RUEDA * MEXICO CITY