I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Adolfo Fritz, Gruma's Investor Relations Officer, who will present earnings results, and then we will open the Q&A session where Mr. Raúl Cavazos, Gruma's Chief Financial Officer, and team will be available to answer additional questions. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Fritz, IRO. Please go ahead, sir. Good morning, and welcome to our Q2 2022 conference call. We're pleased to be here and thankful for the opportunity to share our results with you. With me today, as always, are Mr. Raúl Cavazos Morales, Gruma's CFO, and Rogelio Sánchez Martínez, Gruma's Corporate Finance VP. To start, we'll take a few minutes to share with you the fundamentals and the results for the quarter, and then we'll open it up to any questions you may have. Like so many other companies around the world, Gruma today is focused on managing the relentless rise of inflation stemming from both raw material supply and monetary policy. The dynamics describing our performance are twofold o ne, strong and resilient demand, and two, protection of profitability in light of inflation. Strong demand has kept volumes in the tortilla business at healthy levels across the world. In the US, we saw volume growth in single digits, while significantly higher brand awareness and a full recovery of economic activities in Europe is supporting double digit growth in both retail and food service tortilla. Meanwhile, the Asia and Oceania division was mildly affected by the COVID lockdowns in China, although this was partially offset by a recovery in Australia following the floods last quarter, as well as by a solid performance in Malaysia. Volumes in our Corn Flour business also performed very well during the quarter. Strong demand in the US division comes on the back of greater preference for staple foods in this inflationary environment, while the ongoing recovery of corn milling volume sold in Europe provided a solid ground for our operations during the quarter. Partially offsetting this growth temporarily is a higher comparison base in the Q2 of last year. As I just mentioned a minute ago, inflation remains a challenge, one we've been tackling since the Q1 of last year. This quarter, although we have seen an easing in labor cost growth on a sequential basis relative to a year ago, costs have increased not only from labor, but also from supply constraints and other raw materials which keep hindering prices across the board. That said, these other raw materials, however, represent a low percentage of our total cost structure, and overall, it is not a primary concern. The balancing between revenue growth and cost growth resulted in a flat EBITDA expansion rate last year. However, after normalizing EBITDA from extraordinary gains in Q2 2021 from a real estate sale, EBITDA did in fact grow by 3%. This was supported by the dynamics I just mentioned, as well as by a richer mix of products sold relative to a year ago. In terms of capital allocation, we invested $67 million in Q2 2022, targeted at our plant in Indiana and capacity expansions and production line upgrades in our plant in Dallas. In the US, overall demand has proven to be very resilient thus far, despite the high levels of inflation. Our wide array of product offerings in the US has enabled us to benefit from the different dynamics taking place within each of the markets we cater to. Growth has been boosted by corn product demand in addition to demand for our premium products such as our Better For You brand, whose growth has been stable compared to previous years, and we're not currently seeing any significant trade-downs within our SKUs overall. In fact, demand is very strong in both the retail and food service tortilla segments, particularly in the Northeast, all of which prompted tortilla volumes to increase by single digits in the US. In our Corn Flour business, consumer pulled back on dining out in the face of rising prices and industrial clients moving away from direct corn purchases, increased demand for corn flour significantly, as it is a core ingredient for everyday meals and corn products. This helped expand our volume sold in this segment by single digits as well. Combined, both business lines supported a 5% volume growth and a 20% revenue growth in the US for the quarter. As a combination of all these factors, we're pleased to report that EBITDA increased by 7% over last year. Profitability as measured by EBITDA per ton grew by 3%. We expect the market fundamentals in the U.S. to remain positive for our operations, along with our capability to manage cost growth as we have successfully demonstrated since this wave of inflation hit the global markets. We continue with good news on demand at our subsidiary in Mexico. Although volumes were temporarily hurt by a 1% contraction relative to last year, demand for corn flour keeps being consistent with its traditional value for Mexicans in their everyday meal. Keep in mind that this contraction was not a result of lower demand, but because of a much higher comparison base in the Q2 of last year. Moreover, the ongoing inflation and given the low cost staple food it represents relative to others within the same basket of goods, we're poised to experience further volume growth over the course of the next months. Sales grew by 16% in Q2 2022, while cost pressures in this division, although milder in terms of labor than in the U.S., have been pushed further by the ongoing inflation across the world. EBITDA remained flat but experienced 8% growth on a sequential basis. Since Q1 2021, our subsidiary in Europe has had an explosive momentum in the retail channel when compared to years prior. This quarter helps to further underscore this performance as tortilla volumes sold by 17% relative to a year ago and supported not only by the retail channel in this division, but also by the food service channel, which presented a steady growth and altogether a very positive outlook for both channels. Corn Flour may not have had the performance we would have wanted during 2021. However, since the Q1 of the year, it's reverted its results. Growing demand for corn byproducts and derivatives in the continent have driven a corn milling volume growth of 11% and supported total volume growth in our European division of 13% in addition to a 33% sales growth. Cost dynamics keep being the same we've seen since the Q1 of the year, with energy and fuel in particular being at very high levels in addition to the ongoing inflation on raw materials. In Asia and Oceania, as expected, the lockdowns that took place in China impacted our operation temporarily by contracting volumes in the subsidiary by 6%. Despite having had a very positive performance in Malaysia and Australia, where volumes expanded by 14% and 6% respectively. The situation in China also dragged down sales, which contracted by 5% despite of the good performance in Malaysia and Australia. The combination of the lockdowns, in addition to the effect of inflation on the subsidiary's cost structure, impacted our EBITDA negatively by 45% relative to last year. As I mentioned a minute ago, however, this situation is temporary, and we expect volumes and profitability to recover as China keeps reopening. At our subsidiary in Central America, we're very pleased by the way volumes have expanded as economies keep recovering and after the introduction of new SKUs, which have spurred strong demand for corn flour in the regions the subsidiary caters to. As a result, volumes grew by 7% relative to a year ago, while sales presented a 27% growth for the quarter. With this performance, EBITDA grew 120% compared to Q2 2021, while EBITDA per ton reached a growth of 104%. In all, we're very pleased with the results that we were able to achieve, and more importantly, with the way market fundamentals for our products have been evolving and also responding with the rise in inflation around the world. We're excited about the prospects of the second half of the year as we continue protecting profitability while servicing a soaring demand. With that, I would like to open the call for questions from our listeners today. Could you help us with that, operator, please? Thank you. We'll now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. If you are using speaker equipment, you may need to lift your handset before making your selection. One moment while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Antonio Hernandez with Barclays. Please proceed with your question. Hi, good morning t hanks for taking my question. First is regarding the overall food service trends. You mentioned in some parts of the operating regions, how's that performing? Are you seeing maybe a different trend towards the end of the quarter, compared to the beginning of the quarter, especially with this inflationary environment? That's the first part. The second part of the question also related to this adverse consumer environment. You mentioned that for example, in the US you haven't seen any trade down. What about the other regions as well? Thanks. Sure. Thank you for your question. No, we've actually seen a very positive response from consumers in all segments that we cater to. Europe is doing extremely well. As you can see from the results, we've had a very good trend in terms of our sales there i n terms of consumer response, demand is very strong there as well. I think that also resonates in Mexico and the rest of the region. I would tell you that from a revenue generating perspective, the fundamentals look fantastic. They're pretty sound the way they are today. We haven't seen any slowdown in that regard. Like all other companies around the world today, I would say that the main focus, other than the positive fundamentals in the market, has been a focus on mitigating the effects of inflation on costs. From the revenue generating perspective of the business and the fundamentals, things look great. Okay. That's for both food service as well then? That is correct, for both. Okay, perfect. Thanks a lot. Have a great day. Thank you. Our next question is from. Thank you. Felipe Ucrós with Scotiabank. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. Good morning to everyone. Maybe a follow-up on the question that Antonio just did on down-trading b ecause in your comments, if I heard correctly what you talked about the U.S. I think you. The precise words were no significant amount of down-trading. Just wanted to make sure before I ask my other question. You are actually seeing some down-trading, it's just not significant or could you say that there's no down-trading still? Oh, you could say it's no down-trading at all at this point. What I was referring to is, I mean, the focus right now, obviously the expansion of our Better For You brand has, you know, kept going on, it has not slowed down. Our consumers there have not traded down any products t hey're still buying the product t hey're still liking it very much, and demand is very strong there. We have seen minimal trade down, I would say, in the middle of the ladder of products maybe? But not in the top-end products, which has been for us in terms of the expansion we're trying to achieve. What we have seen is an incremental degree of purchases or need for corn products and, you know, tortillas made out of corn specifically, chips as well. That's just increased the pie, if you will, in terms of demand, in terms of sales. There hasn't been any slowdown or trade down in the main products that we have today. Okay, great. That's very clear. That covers my follow-up. Now to my main question. Obviously, commodities have traded down significantly, especially grains, the last month and a half or two months, if you wanna call it. As of the last call, you guys had made a very smart decision not to hedge at those levels of volatility and prices that we were seeing when we had the last call. Just wondering what you've decided to do now, because it seems like a very nice window to roll forward the hedging. I didn't see anything on the report, just wanted to see what you guys have decided to do on that front. No, yes, as you know from our last communications, last conference calls that we've had, while we cannot disclose at this point the levels of hedges or the hedging and anything regarding to hedging at this point, we're just continuing the same policy we've had for the longest time now. We're just trying to navigate the waters of inflation at this point. Just that's everything that I can disclose at this point. Got it. Nothing on that front. Perfect i f I can ask a last one. You had mentioned in previous calls that there were some issues with labor in the US, and you had to work around the fact that you didn't have enough people with paying some overtime, and that obviously was weighing quite a bit on the SG&A for the USA. It seemed it corrected quite a bit this quarter. Just wanted to see if this is kind of what we should expect as a normalized level? or if there's still some more normalization to go in the next few quarters. No, I would say that's the same level you'd see going forward. As I mentioned, in the opening remarks, obviously if you compare costs, year-on-year, you'll have a growth there. You know, they're not even comparable at this point. On a sequential basis, things are more stable than they were before, and they tend to be like that for the rest of the year w e don't see an issue with labor sequentially, at this point. We're not. Our focus on labor has somehow moved away from that variable, and we're just focusing on other things right now. No, very clear. I'll get myself back on the queue for other questions and make sure everyone else has time. Thanks a lot. Sure. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Thank you. Our next question comes from Bernardo Malpica with Compass Group. Please proceed with your question. Hey, hello everyone. Thank you for the time for questions. My question is regarding Central America performance. There was a significant EBITDA margin expansion of more than 500 basis points to almost 13%. I mean, in your guidance, of course this was the region where you expected the most growth, but I think it was actually surprising. So I mean, just to understand, how sustainable is this close to 13% of the margin? I mean, was it a one-time improvement, or could we see this EBITDA margin in the region around this number going forward? That would be my first question. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, that would be the actual level, if you will, that we see things on a normalized level. What happened in Central America at this point is, or during the quarter, better said, is that we started introducing or expanding the distribution of some SKUs that have been very well received by the market. We've had tremendous success with those. We're going to continue expanding and continue distributing those products or those SKUs in the market as we go forward. We're expecting very good results going forward from that subsidiary. Perfect t hank you. Just also a question both on Asia and Central America. Together, they still represent around 10% of the revenue, 6% of the EBITDA, at least, with the numbers of this quarter. With these improving numbers and trends, for example, in Central America, is there an objective as of how much more relevant you want these regions to be as a percentage of your revenues? Or do you just want to grow the regions without a specific objective? Right now we don't specifically have a target in place. Right now our focus and the focus of our CEO is obviously profitability, a great focus on quality and get the product to wherever the market is and wherever the greater demand is, and just being extremely innovative with our product offerings. That's the focus of the strategy, and we don't have a specific target in place. Perfect. That is very clear t hank you so much. Thank you. Our next question is from Alan Alanís with Santander. Please proceed with your question. Yes. Hi, good morning, everyone. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. A few questions here. The first one, I mean, we know that the volatility that we're seeing in corn prices is not unusual. Could you educate us a bit in terms of what explains the decline of more than 20% in the last couple of weeks in the price of corn? Any view going forward, since you're a very big buyer of corn, regarding the prices of corn. Connected to that question, something specific for Gruma. We're seeing an increase in days inventory t he inventory levels, if we're doing the calculations correctly, went up from 63 to 83 days year-over-year in terms of 83 days of invent Is this a new level? or is this something that is something very temporary in terms of the inventory levels measured in terms of number of days going forward for Gruma? Those would be my questions. Thank you so much. No, thank you for your question. Sure i n regards to your first question, there are many factors operating around the fundamentals that are driving the price of corn right now. I would say that the first one is, given the volatility in the overall markets, you know, all funds that have had a very strong position in commodities, have been selling them off actually. Trying to mitigate their risks and they're, so it's just a balancing of the funds as well for the forward positions. That's one t he second one is the talks right now of a, I would say, a potential channel of distribution for corn and the talks that are being held within Turkey with Russia. That is also, I mean, probably the right wording is not up in the air. I mean, it's still going on, so it's still a variable to- -keep in mind to see if they will reach an agreement or not. Right now, because it's still in the air and there are hopes that an agreement will be reached, that's another point of, I would say, a bearish fundamental on the prices of corn, specifically t hat's why combining both things, the selling of the positions of hedge funds plus this hope that the market has in regards to these countries reaching an agreement for a safe distribution channel out of the conflict zone to the rest of the world, that keeps hopes up. Of course, another variable as well is with the current price of gasoline, you know, demand is a little bit sensitive there, even in spite of it being summer season, which is the highest peak season for gasoline consumption in the US. Ethanol is not being consumed as much as it used to. There is another, quote-unquote, "bearish" fundamental for corn right there. Those I would say would be the three points that I would signal to. Great To for the reasoning behind the drop in prices in corn specific. In regards to the inventory levels, we have made a point to have enough inventory given the situation in the world how it is right now, to have enough inventory for distribution. We're building up on that. That's obviously correlated with the growth that we've had in debt so far. However, going forward, I think that we believe we reached a level that we wanted to in inventories, and that is why both inventories and our debt should stabilize going forward. That's very clear w e should expect this level of inventories to be, like, to stay stable going forward. Yeah. Last question i m gonna ask a completely different. That's my last question. Anything you can comment regarding the impact of any potential government measures in Mexico regarding controls or price controls, like the agreement or the soft agreement that they had with i know it was with tortilla, not with Corn Flour. But anything you can comment regarding the measures that the authorities are taking in the sense of the prices of- Yeah, sure. Look, they have their own agenda, and I think that they have, I would say, social responsibility for, you know, given the situation that we're living under right now. Sure. In our case, we've always had a social responsibility, given the product that we're talking about here. We will always act, you know, socially responsible, more so. With you know something that we've always done, and more so with the evolution of ESG as it is today. We'll always act responsibly and socially with the market. Whether the government is doing or has a plan for price controls or not, we will always act responsibly and socially like. That's very fair. Thank you so much for taking my questions and congrats. Thanks. Thank you for your question. Thank you. Our next question is from Sergio Matsumoto with Citigroup. Please proceed with your question. Yes, hi, good morning. Sergio Matsumoto from Citigroup. My question is on. Hi, Sergio. Hi. My question is on the hedging at Giemsa. I know that there was a hedging gain last year, and this year there was a slight loss. I just wanted to get more color on the nature of the hedge. The press release mentioned it was corn, but was it also related to the Mexican peso? Given that these were already done, and you kind of have a you know the levels already, would you expect a similar kind of year-over-year change going forward or should it moderate in the coming quarters? Thanks. Sure. Thank you for your question. Well, part of our business, as everyone knows, as I mean, one of our main raw materials obviously is corn s o yes, the volatility that you see there goes in line with the volatility of the price of corn. As we have in the past and as we always do, we have hedging positions. When the valuation of those hedging positions have volatility, that's what you see in our other income line in our income statement. In order to forecast that, I would say that it would be a little bit challenging to tell you how that would be going forward. As always, there will be some times where we'll have gains and some times where we have losses depending on the volatility of the price of corn in the futures market. I would tell you that is part of the business and on a cumulative basis, I'd say we're doing pretty well with everything that we've done there. Yeah. I guess my question is perhaps would you characterize last year's gain? as something that was outsized, like more than usual? Or is it? Or would you expect something in a similar magnitude going forward? No, I would. It's a very difficult question to answer. I would tell you that the magnitude of what you see in that line, it's totally correlated with the levels in COGS, compensations or offsets, the levels or the growth rates that you see in COGS. Because they are t hey're obviously connected because of the purpose of the actual hedges that we have for those raw materials. Depending on how these two variables move, that's how and when you will see the magnitude, whether it be a gain or a loss in that line on the other income line. Okay. Understood. My second question, if I may, is would you have an updated guidance as a result of, you know, how things have transpired in the first half? No. Actually we're feeling pretty comfortable with the way things have been evolving with how the market is behaving, how the consumer is accepting the product, demand that we're seeing in the market w e're not concerned about our guidance w e're keeping it at this point. Okay. Thanks very much, Adolfo. No, thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from Alvaro Garcia with BTG. Please proceed with your question. Hi. Good day. Good day, everyone t hanks for taking my question. Two questions o ne, a follow-up on the guidance. Would it be fair to assume, and it's sort of connected to pricing, would it be fair to assume additional pricing actions in the U.S.? Last call you mentioned you were sort of staying put and waiting for your regular cycle price increase, but not sure if it'd be fair given your comments on maintaining this guidance to see additional pricing actions in the U.S. in the second half. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for your question, Alvaro. As I just said, we feel very comfortable with the guidance as is. If inflation keeps being a drag on our costs, we will always strive to protect profitability and pass on additional cost to revenues. It's just a matter of seeing how things go. Okay. One question on Asia. It seems your sales and your volumes have moved in line. It seems I would have expected to have seen more pricing i was wondering if that was a mixed thing. If you could maybe try to give a little bit more color on the impact that China had or if Australia was also seeing sort of weaker results. Just a little bit more color on Asia would be great. Thank you. Sure. No problem. In Asia, the main factor there was obviously China with the lockdowns taking place during the quarter that hinder operations obviously e veryone was in lockdown there. In Australia, if you remember, from a quarter ago, we had floodings there, so things are sort of recovering t hey have not reached their peak level of performance that they would normally have- -On a quote-unquote normalized level. Going forward, obviously as China keeps reopening their economy, things should improve on that front and Australia, I would say that it would be recovering over in the next quarter or so, once the repercussions of the floodings, you know, get diluted over time. I would say that the numbers that you see in front of you are numbers that are, you know, that take into consideration these two variables to adjust extraordinary events and things should pick up back to normal, once the reopening of China takes place and once Australia starts being at the normalized pool of operations. Great. Great t hank you very much. Thank you, Alvaro. Thank you. Our next question is from José Yañez with Compass. Please proceed with your question. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. It's actually two follow-ups on previous questions. The first one is on your guidance i know you just said that, you know, you feel pretty comfortable about your guidance, but could you talk a little bit more about the granularity of your guidance, if there's any areas where you feel there's upside surprise that may compensate for other areas that you feel there could be some downsides for prices, and what are those areas in particular? You know, when I look at your guidance, I guess the top line looks pretty strong so far, right? Mainly driven by pricing, but looks pretty strong. Particularly on the margin side, just wondering if that's kind of where the downside is, especially, you know, in a market like the US where we've seen a little bit over 200 basis points of margin contraction in the first half, which would imply that to get to your guidance, you would have to have margin expansion actually, in the second half s o if you could comment on that'll be my first question. Sure. Look, depending, I would say, on how costs or the trend of costs during the second half of the year and, depending on the growth rate that they have right now, as you probably are aware, obviously, we've been playing catch up on costs. They're just growing at such an unprecedented rate that we have to catch up with the growth and cost every time, we feel there is a need to pass on the cost to our revenues. You know, other than that variable. In the sense of the cost of raw materials or any disruptions that there could be in terms of supply. You know, with what I was mentioning a minute ago in terms of the fundamentals of corn, you know, the result of the talks right now with the distribution channel is crucial for the- -you know, to just see the real driver behind corn and how that behaves in pricing. You know, it just depends, really. You have those bearish fundamentals on that side, but you also have bullish fundamentals in the sense of the weather conditions r ight now, there's heat all over the place. It 's just a variable. We'll have to see how it behaves going forward. Based on that and based on the distribution or the supply of other materials, we will have to also see how things unfold r ight now, we've been able to manage the ongoing inflation across our entire cost structure very effectively. We've been having a great year in terms of consumer demand. W e feel great in terms of EBITDA per ton, which is the metric that we use internally to measure the profitability of the business within this environment, at least. We're right on track to achieve the guidance we set of mid-single digit growth. With that, with those fundamentals and with that profitability goal, we feel that we're really on the right track and we're very solid when it relates to guidance. Great. Thanks a lot. My second question goes back to the hedges i totally understand that, you know, for competitive reasons you don't wanna disclose, I guess, the level of hedges. Is there something you could share with us, at least qualitatively in terms of the hedging. T hings like, you know, whether we should expect you guys to be fully hedged as usual by the October, November timeframe, or maybe you pushed something into it, at least, I don't know, 50% or more has been hedged already, whether you hedge on the peaks y ou know, anything you could comment on that area would be really helpful for us to get a sense. Unfortunately, the one thing I can comment is the same comment I just shared with you, which is that we're following the same policies that we've always had. We have here a great treasury department that's focused and that's continuously monitoring the pricing of the corn futures, and you know, we're doing the right thing to try to mitigate inflation. That's everything that I can share with you, unfortunately. Fair enough. Well, thanks a lot for your answers, and congrats. No, thank you for your question. Thank you. Our next question comes from Luis Willard with GBM. Please proceed with your question. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Just a follow-up a little from the inventory question that Alan made. I mean, is it fair to assume that this inventory build-up that you're seeing, could help you potentially to ease the cost pressure in the coming quarters? Given I mean, if corn prices continue to drop, when would be the first? You know how soon? I'm sorry. I think that I don't know if it's your phone, but I couldn't catch the details of your question i think it was related to the cost pressures. I hope this is better. It was a follow-up on the inventory question. Basically, is it fair to assume that as you build up inventory as corn prices, let's say, closer to spot prices that have been coming down in the recent weeks, is it fair to assume that this inventory build-up could help potentially, ease cost pressures in the coming quarters for you? You know, that's a great question, and it really depends, and I hate that I have to say the answer depends. The truth of the matter is that in inventories you have different harvests, if you will, of different prices of corn i ts just depends on what corn gets out of the inventory into COGS to know the real cost of your raw materials. It's hard to say, how things will behave with the current inventory in terms of COGS and in terms of costs. Just, I would say that it's fair to assume, that our inventories have a mix of pricing related to corn in all the layers of inventory that we have. Correct a lso, thank you i f I may have another one. Maybe this one is a bit more philosophical, but do you find opportunities to increase the penetration of corn flour in the environments like this with high inflation, very, you know, a consumer that could potentially start being more price sensitive? Any comment in that regard would be great. Thank you. No, I would say corn flour penetration is doing quite well, whether you see it in Central America or you see it in Mexico or whether you see our operations in the U.S. This environment, as I mentioned a minute ago, has spurred a lot of buyers to focus on staple foods. Among the staple food basket, I would say that corn flour and corn-related products like tortilla is at the bottom in terms of pricing. I would say that it's a very attractive product at this point for consumers to have in their basket of goods. You know, as it is a staple food, there is not a lot of sensitivity, if you will, in regards to our products. It's hard to say how better off or worse off we are in this environment. We have seen a pickup in demand recently, due to the focus on these type of products overall. All right. Thank you. That was very helpful. Thank you for your question. Thank you. Our next question is from Ulises Argote with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed with your question. Hey, guys. Yeah, I hope all is well, and thanks for the space for questions here. Just a couple more here from my side w ith the normalization of corn costs that we're seeing, do you think it'll be more challenging to pass on pricing there in the U.S., particularly with the retailers over the coming months? Any comments that you can make on how maybe this can impact the competitive dynamics and any industry pricing? Or do you see any potential, I don't know, even maybe for short-term decline in prices from competitors? Any color that you can share on that front I think would be really good. Then I have another couple of questions here. Thank you. Sure. No problem. I think that you have to look at it as an entire universe, right now as an entire segment. Everyone is going through the same cost pressures, and everyone is subject to this inflation that we're living in right now. Right now, as you very well said, and as it's known, the price of corn and commodities overall have dropped significantly because of the reasons that I gave in a few minutes ago. However, you know, inflation is still here and it's still a drag on our cost structure. Like I said, not only our company, but I think every other company around the world, competitors and other companies that, you know, do their business within the food and beverage industry, will have to focus on managing those costs. I think that, despite of the price of corn the way it is right now, and because it just literally is on the edge of tilting towards a sustainable level because of the unknowns in terms of the drivers that it's driving this drop. I would say that things are, you know, business is as usual. I wouldn't say that just because of that, there is a change in environment that we're living or a change in handling things. Okay. Thank you t hat's clear enough t hen, sorry if I sound like a broken record here, but a follow-up also on the hedging also. Obviously, you're not giving out a lot of details there, but maybe on the strategy, if you can remind us, if you will include Mexico as well into the hedging for 2023 and also how that strategy looks like, for the other regions. If you could share any detail there, that would be highly appreciated. Sure. We do have a strategy to include Mexico in hedging positions. The U.S. is of course as well. In terms of Europe, it really depends on the region or the country, if I may say. It's more opportunistic than not in Europe. Again, as I said, that's something that we've done traditionally, and especially now in this environment. It's something that is obviously creates a lot of questions that were not probably asked before in years where the commodity prices were at the historic lows. You know, it's part of our policy to cover those countries and those regions of the world w e'll keep doing that. Okay, perfect. Thank you very much. Just the last one, if I may here. On the move to dollar reporting also, this has obviously been a topic that we've been hearing a lot about, and it's kind of more related to if you are considering kind of listing the company in the U.S. to capture better multiples. Is this like a first step into that? Maybe any color that you can share on any discussions that you've had on that front? Thank you. Thank you. No, right now, there are no discussions in place to list the company in the U.S. The reporting in dollars was just based on the fact that, you know, the majority of operations are outside of Mexico. With our main market being the U.S. It was just a, I would say, an easier way to transmit to the market the fundamentals to the market, and that's why we did it w e haven't even considered or contemplated in any discussion the possibility of us listing in the U.S. Okay, perfect. Thanks for that, Adolfo. Thank you. Oh, thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. Our next question is from Felipe Ucrós with Scotiabank. Please proceed with your question. Hi, Adolfo. It does seem that there's enough space to do a couple of follow-ups, so thanks for the space again. Maybe the first question is on the rationalization that you guys were doing in Mexico. You know, you're rationalizing clients, so that had a little bit of impact on volumes in the last few quarters, but I didn't see a mention of it in the report. Just wanted to ask if you're essentially done with that process? or if it's still affecting volumes and how much longer we can expect that process to go on. Then another question that I had was. Or maybe I'll let you answer that question before I ask the follow-up. Thanks. Sure. The bulk of the process, I think it's done. If we continue doing that, it will be on a selective basis. I would say on an opportunistic basis, that's a better word for it. We're done with that. Right now, the way volumes behave relative to last year have to do more, as you probably are aware, because I read the release and I said in my opening remarks. Have to do more with a higher comparison base, rather than the selectivity process that we had in place t hat's over with, and if you see something else get mentioned about that, it would be on a selective or an opportunistic basis. Perfect t hat's very clear. Just wanted to make sure if it was still going on. That's very clear. Sure. My other question was on A&O and Central America. I remember I asked that question maybe Q1 or Q2 ago about hedging, and you told us that you don't actively do hedging on those two regions. Kind of a little bit of a follow-up to what Ulises did. Given that A&O and Central America typically don't do hedging and that spot prices have been coming down, should we be expecting those margins to improve the next quarters? I mean, based on how prices have come down, obviously. Yeah. We don't know if they're gonna stay there, but. That was exactly my answer. I think that everybody's counting on that based on the fundamentals, or I guess the latest news regarding those fundamentals that we talked about at the beginning of the call. There's others that balance them out, right? Like I was saying, there's different ways, practically, you know, the U.S. and Europe, all over the place t here is 60% probability that La Niña will hit South America now. There are a lot of fundamentals that counter the bearish fundamentals. Right now it would be a wild guess to tell you, that the price of corn will stay that way and that we're gonna increase margins and such. We'll have to wait and see how everything plays out. Those things that we're waiting to see, which is the talks with Russia and those channels of distribution that have been talked about. We have to wait and see if China doesn't come back and start buying more corn even instead of selling it, given the pricing. We have to wait and see if, right now with the summer, you know, gasoline prices are, you know, like I said, they're very high in the US, as you probably know. Ethanol is not being demanded as much. There's a lot of selectivity in terms of what you spend your money on. You know, people are on vacation. Who knows how things will unfold now that the pricing of corn is this way, maybe there'll be more demand for gasoline. There is a lot of variables that can change from one day to the other at this point i t's very, very hard to say or count on a low price of corn to margin expansion. No, right. I'm not looking for you to weigh the fundamentals and tell us where corn is gonna go w hat I'm really asking is, look, prices of corn right now are below where they were before the war, and futures have fallen even more. That kind of implies that the average price of corn, and if they stay where they are, I'm not asking you to guess where they're gonna be i f they stay where they are, should that imply better margins for those regions? Well, look, if they stay where they are, it could potentially increase margins s ure. You also have to take into consideration that we also compete, with the direct corn purchases for the corn though. You know, it's a kind of difficult question to answer in that sense. Everything else taken equal, you know, if things remain the way they are in terms of price of corn, we could potentially increase margin s ure. Got it. Thanks a lot, Adolfo. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Jorge Moro with Fundamente. Please proceed with your question. Yes, hello. Thanks for taking my question. My question is regarding margins and the guidance. I mean, in order to, let's say, deliver a nearly 100 basis points for the year, you should expect a slight expansion in margins in the second half as you are implying with the guidance. So my question is, should we expect this to happen via higher prices? Should we expect higher prices in the U.S. maybe? Or are you actually, when looking at your cost base in the second half relative to the first half, should we expect a decrease in cost per ton? Thanks for your question. Look, really, the margin question is something that is up in the air given the inflationary environment that we're living in. Right now, we feel very comfortable with the guidance as is, but we feel more comfortable because we're right on target with our EBITDA per ton, which is our measure of profitability. Right now, it's very hard to measure profitability on the margins because of inflation. Right now, internally as a company, as long as we keep our guidance and the mid-single digit growth that we set as an objective in terms of EBITDA per ton, we feel very comfortable and satisfied with the profitability of the company. Perfect s orry, my bad then. Is there a guidance of flat to 100 basis point contraction in margin for the full year? Am I mistaken that? No, no, you're totally correct. We said there was the guidance for margins was flat to a 100 basis point contraction. We also said that implied, given the inflationary environment that we're living in, that could be misrepresented t he profitability measure in our guidance as well, that we provided was a mid-single digit growth and EBITDA per ton. Right. Okay. Yeah, I got it. You have high inflation in the end that dilutes your margin, but you deliver on the EBITDA per ton. That's correct. Okay. That's perfect t hank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any closing comments. Well, thank you again guys for being with us today and joining us on our call. We look forward to hearing from you or seeing you in future events or if you decide to, contact us for further questions, we'd be glad to take them. Take care and have a great day. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Gruma's Q2 2022 earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation. You m ay now disconnect.