Sorry, California, French bucks go to Baja

Baja’s business sector is looking up, according to recent reports in the financial pages of Frontera, which reported earlier in the week that Baja’s business dealings with the U.S. and Baja tallied to $33 billion for the year 2012. That figure for Baja alone, says Tijuana’s U.S. consul general Andrew S.E. Erickson, is comparable to the dollar volume of business done between the United States and Brazil for the same year.

Thus, it is not surprising that France, onetime ruler of Mexico, wants to build stronger ties, both culturally and in business relations, with Baja. The big draw, according to consul honorario de francia in Tijuana Fernando Padilla Fitch, is the aerospace sector. French business interests have reportedly invested some $300 to $400 million in the development of aerospace industries in Baja.

Another area of Baja in which the French have shown interest is the wine region of the Valle of Guadalupe, where wine interests from the Champagne-Ardenne region of France reportedly would like to see a champagne industry developed.

Fitch is quoted as saying that French interests want to buy into Baja because California has become too expensive an area in which to do business. Baja, he says, offers attractive investment alternatives.

Fitch also pointed out that the French have had a presence in Baja for hundreds of years and right now some 80,000 persons with French roots are living in Baja, the majority in Tijuana.