Hello OmniTalk Fans!
Latin America doesn’t always get the spotlight at global retail summits. That changes now.
I sat down with Erika Rodríguez Cuervo, General Manager for Latin America at the Consumer Goods Forum, live from the CGF Leadership Studio at the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 in Vienna, Austria. And if you’ve been sleeping on Latin America as a storyline in global consumer goods, this conversation is your wake-up call.
Here are my biggest takeaways:
Latin America Is a Growth Story You Can’t Ignore
Erika made it clear right out of the gate that Latin America brings a unique combination of large and growing consumer markets, strong manufacturing capabilities, and a rapidly evolving retail landscape, all happening at the same time. That’s not a niche market. That’s an opportunity hiding in plain sight for global brands paying attention.
The CGF’s Job Is Collaboration, Not Consultation
What stood out to me about how Erika described the CGF’s role in the region is that it isn’t about handing down global mandates. It’s about creating practical platforms where members design local initiatives together, learn from each other, and move faster as a result. Whether the topic is sustainability, circularity, or supply chain efficiency, the model is peer learning, not top-down instruction.
The Golden Design Rules Are Worth Knowing
I’ll be honest, I had never heard this term before arriving in Vienna. The Golden Design Rules are a set of principles developed by the CGF at the global level to make plastic packaging easier to collect, sort, and recycle. What makes them work locally, according to Erika, is flexibility. Companies in the region decide when, how, and at what speed to implement them based on their own markets and priorities. Global framework, local execution. Simple idea, harder to pull off than it sounds.
Plastic Circularity Is Being Driven By Regulation, Not Just Conscience
This was a useful reality check. Yes, the environmental need is obvious. But Erika pointed out that most Latin American countries are also facing increasingly stronger regulations around packaging and waste management. For a lot of companies in the region, circularity isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s becoming the required thing to do.
AI Could Be Latin America’s Leapfrog Moment
I asked Erika whether AI could do for Latin America what mobile did for China, allowing the region to skip past legacy infrastructure and land somewhere more advanced than expected. The key, she said, isn’t replicating what mature markets have already done. It’s figuring out how AI can solve specifically Latin American challenges in ways that fit local realities. That framing matters. Copying and pasting Silicon Valley’s playbook into São Paulo or Mexico City probably won’t work. Building something designed for those markets just might.
The Bottom Line
Latin America is not a monolith. It’s a diverse, dynamic region full of companies at very different stages of digital and operational maturity. What the CGF is doing there, connecting those companies around shared challenges while respecting local context, is exactly the kind of work that doesn’t make headlines but makes real progress. Pay attention to this region. The next big retail story might be written in Spanish or Portuguese.
Special thanks to the CGF Leadership Studio, sponsored by Vusion, for supporting Omni Talk Retail’s live coverage all conference long.
Find the rest of the live interviews from The Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhlbTg57CFdAihPNZ04kRKCE7HS6wDdF3
Be careful out there,
Chris and the Omni Talk Team
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.