March 10, 2004
US Beef Exports Set To Mexico Start This Week
U.S. exports of some beef products are expected to begin flowing to Mexico this week, now that safety certification issues have been resolved, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official said Tuesday.
Two U.S. companies, Excel Corp. and Swift & Co., now are eligible to begin shipping boneless beef from cattle under 30 months of age to Mexico, according to a new list on the USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service Web site.
Mark Klein, a spokesman for Excel, said the company has not yet resumed shipments to Mexico, but is making preparations to do so soon.
Spokespeople for Swift & Co. were not available for immediate comment.
A USDA official said outstanding certification issues with Mexico were resolved late last week amid talks between the two countries.
The result, the official said, is a new Beef Export Verification program, known as BEV, implemented by the USDA to assure Mexico that its safety concerns over U.S. beef are being met.
Klein said, "Government officials and industry associations on both sides of the border did great work in getting us to where we're at."
Mexico partially lifted its ban on March 3, but trade did not resume immediately because a system still needed to be set up to certify that U.S. beef met new safety requirements and presented no risk for transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease.
Mexico banned U.S. beef and live cattle on Dec. 24, a day after the U.S. announced it had discovered a case of mad-cow disease in one dairy cow in Washington state.
Requirements under the new BEV program for Mexico specify that "beef and beef products must be derived from cattle younger than 30 months of age at the time of slaughter" and "only beef and beef products produced from intact muscle cuts will be acceptable."
Mexico imported $819 million worth of beef from the U.S. in the first 11 months of 2003 before the USDA announced its BSE discovery in December, according to data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Mexico is the second-largest market for U.S. beef behind Japan.
