## Nearshoring supplier discovery, from the public record

URL: https://testigomexico.com/guides/nearshoring-supplier-discovery
Updated: 2026-10-07

To find nearshore suppliers, start from the official registry of each country, count the plants by activity and region, then narrow to the ones worth a call. Testigo holds 1,498,009 manufacturers in 9 Latin American countries, 655,218 of them in Mexico, each with its source and edition date.

Key facts:
- Mexico: 655,218 plants, DENUE 2026-05-20
- With 51 or more staff in Mexico's registry: 14,361
- IMMEX programmes read: 5,852, edition 2026-08-31
- Brazil: 580,085 establishments, CNPJ 2026-09-14
- Other countries: Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay

### Five steps from a part to a shortlist

1. Size the field: Before you search for names, look at the counts. The statistics pages give plants by region and by sector for each country, with the registry and its edition.
2. Search by what you buy: Search by product or process. Registries record an activity, so try the process as well as the part: stamping, die casting, injection molding.
3. Narrow by place and size: Pick the regions your logistics can reach. In Mexico, filter by staff band. Mexico's registry lists 39,790 manufacturing establishments with 11 or more staff.
4. Read the export signal: In Mexico, an IMMEX programme on a record shows a company set up to manufacture for export. Read its status: 5,819 programmes are authorised and 33 suspended in the edition read.
5. Check, then call: Read the tax ID against the official lists, save the supplier brief, and write to the plant in its language.

### What each registry lets you do

| Country | Rows loaded | Size on record | Contacts on record | Guide |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mexico | 655,218 | Staff band | Phone, email or website on 309,246 | Find manufacturers in Mexico |
| Brazil | 580,085 | Class by revenue | Phone or email on 541,618 | Find manufacturers in Brazil |
| Argentina | 74,039 | None | None | Argentina |
| Colombia | 70,609 | On few rows | On 7,517 | Colombia |
| Peru | 75,163 | Workers, on some rows | None | Peru |
| Chile | 28,208 | Workers | None | Chile |
| Ecuador | 11,767 | None | Phone on 11,584 | Ecuador |

Paraguay and Uruguay are loaded too, with 2,270 and 650 rows. Contact counts say the registry holds the field, not that it still works.

### What the public record cannot tell you

- Whether a plant has open capacity, takes contract work or can meet your volume. Ask.
- Whether a certificate is current. A certificate named on a plant's website is a claim. Confirm it with the body that issued it.
- Quality and financial health. They need an audit and documents from the supplier.
- Trade rules. Whether a part qualifies under a trade agreement depends on its origin, not on where the plant is. See the USMCA guide.

A registry is a starting list, built from every company the state knows, not from the ones that advertise. The visit and the audit still decide.

The checks to run on a supplier before the trip.

### Questions

**Is there a database of nearshoring suppliers in Mexico?**
The base is public. INEGI's DENUE directory lists 656,617 manufacturing establishments in its 2026-05-20 edition, and the Secretaría de Economía publishes the IMMEX programme directory. Testigo loads both, ties programmes to plants by company name, and makes them searchable by product, state and size, with the source on every record.

**How do I find Mexican plants that already export?**
Look for an IMMEX programme on the record. IMMEX is Mexico's export manufacturing programme, and its directory names the company, the programme type and its status. With Pro you can filter the search by IMMEX and PROSEC. A plant that operates under another company's programme shows nothing, so ask.

**Which country should I look at besides Mexico?**
That depends on your part, your market and your logistics, which no registry can decide. What the record can give is the size of each field: the number of plants by activity and region in each country, from a named source. Start with the statistics pages, then search the two or three countries that fit.

Sources:
- DENUE, INEGI, edition 2026-05-20: https://www.inegi.org.mx/app/descarga/?ti=6
- Directorio de programas IMMEX, Secretaría de Economía, edition 2026-08-31: https://www.snice.gob.mx/
- CNPJ, Receita Federal, edition 2026-09-14: https://dados.gov.br/dados/conjuntos-dados/cadastro-nacional-da-pessoa-juridica---cnpj


Cite as: Testigo, "Nearshoring supplier discovery, from the public record", https://testigomexico.com/guides/nearshoring-supplier-discovery, data file 2026-10-12.

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This is the Markdown version of https://testigomexico.com/guides/nearshoring-supplier-discovery. Testigo: Testigo is supplier intelligence for people who source from Latin America: a search over manufacturers taken from the official public registry of each country. Each record shows its source, its date and what was not checked.