Do MINT-nation markets offer fresh supply chain opportunities?

Over the last decade, Brazil, Russia, India and China have provided businesses with some huge opportunities to capitalize as their economies enjoyed double digit growth. While these so called BRIC countries start to show signs of slowing economic development, could a new generation of emerging countries overtake the BRIC nations as the world’s fastest growing economic super powers?

Dubbed the MINT nations; Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey are expected to see rapid economic expansion over the next few years. While these up and coming countries may not be as developed as the likes of Russia or China, according to the leading economist Jim O’Neill, these countries boast the perfect conditions to harvest exponential growth. With the promise of new prosperity, these four nations could present businesses with some huge opportunities to develop further reaching global supply chain networks.

With the opportunity to prosper, it is no surprise a number of businesses have already started to realize the potential of the MINT nations. For example, the confectionary giant, Cadburys, has recently announced plans to invest $350 million into developing a new biscuit factory which will open in Mexico later this year. Likewise in Turkey, the emerging economy has already has helped a number of local businesses including Turkish Airlines and Beko to become some of the world’s most prominent brands.

Given that all of the MINT nations are located in close proximity to a number of other key supply chain destinations, these countries are perfectly positioned to service future trade routes. For instance, with Indonesia at the heart of Asia, and Mexico linking South America with the northern hemisphere, from a logistics prospective, both countries could become major international distribution hubs. Furthermore, considering Nigeria’s links with Africa and Turkey’s affiliation with both Europe and the Middle East, the MINT nations could help forge international trade relations and make a number of remote destinations far more accessible for businesses.

In addition to the favorable geographic locations, the MINT nations also sit on huge reserves of unexplored natural resources. It may however take some time before these resources can be exploited, but there is no denying the high demand. Furthermore, given that all four of the MINT nations also have young emerging work forces, they are well positioned to become major petrochemical exporters as well as future production capitals.

For businesses, the MINT nations present the opportunity to extend supply chains to encompass new distribution hubs, a greater diversity of suppliers, or even entirely new markets. Given the extent to which businesses prospered from the growth of the original BRIC nations, it will be interesting to see what the MINT nations have to offer.

While the next few years look extremely promising, as with all emerging economies, there is a lot of uncertainty around the true potential these counties will come to achieve. For example, in Nigeria and Turkey, the political environment can be extremely volatile while Indonesia and Mexico’s infrastructure may require considerable development in order to meet the supply chain challenges that lie ahead.

As a consequence, businesses hoping to expand the role of the MINT nations in their supply chain may find their operations subject to extremely turbulent supply and demand patterns. Given that many organizations may have limited experience in the MINT nations, failure to prepare could leave operations subject to huge disruption. In order to mitigate the risk, organizations will have to adopt effective supply chain practices which not only enable businesses to gain an overview of the whole supply chain, but also allow them to actively anticipate any potential supply chain issues and thus respond accordingly.

Despite the risk, there is no denying the future potential of these emerging nations. Given the early indications of growth, perhaps the MINT nations could someday become a key part of your supply chain. While it may take time before Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey overtake the current economic super powers, how do you envisage the rise of the MINT nations will impact your supply chain?