March 1, 2013

In order to normalise prices and avoid market distortions, Mexico has suspended its poultry exports for six months.

This comes as a result of avian influenza confirmed at 12 Industrias Bachoco poultry farms, all located in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

Mexican poultry exports to Japan, for example, currently stand at 60,000 tonnes per year, an amount "not all too significant," according to the Mexican economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo.

He also said that any chicken or egg price increases are not "justified" and any culprits will be "punished to the fullest extent of the law." Guajardo did recognise, however, some slight price increases in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, but he categorised these as "isolated incidents."

"We're studying everything very closely," he said. "And there will be no excuses for either increased prices or product shortages."

This avian influenza outbreak is "radically different," according to Guajardo, from that confirmed last year in the Mexican state of Jalisco when 23 million birds were slaughtered as a preventive measure.