Agricultural food craft is a social production, sustained on transformation of agricultural raw materials for commercialization. It has been learned, shared and reproduced in the Mexican families, with a common meaning among its participants. The south region of Guanajuato integrates 10 municipalities. In 2000, it had: productive units 37 %, employment 22 %, and total incomes of industrial activity 12 %, production 13 %, and market value 15 %. The number of alimentary productive units reaches 37 % of the total of industrial units and 20 % of total employment in this area. Although agricultural food crafts are represented in small towns, world scenario means opening and competitiveness. It is necessary to establish which handmade units will have development opportunity in these conditions. The goal of this project was to find the number and trend production of agricultural food crafts from the south region of Guanajuato State by the method of productive systems.

In this study, 45 products and 32 agricultural handmade by-products had been identified (for example meat products, dairy products, preserving food, wheat and corn products). Specially 28 preserve food products and, wheat and corn products have possibility of development on the international market. It could be possible through two types of productive units: units bond directly with the production of raw materials and units donxt have a direct relationship. Producers that donxt have a direct relationship, demand training on transformation process, financing and export. They have more workers number and productive systems than the rest of State. However, they also have risk to lose their cultural and value in the market, due to the standardization of their processes. Then, it has been necessary to found strategies to apply minimal modification to the processes and give to agricultural food crafts higher market value.