May 26, 2010

US to increase Mexican seafood imports

US authorities plan to increase imports from Mexican marine producers following the oil spill that occurred days ago in Gulf of Mexico waters.

Specifically, shipments of scale fish, lobster, sardine, aquaculture shrimp and octopus, will be augmented, indicated the head of the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission (CONAPESCA), Ramon Corral Avila.

If this initiative takes shape, Mexico would increase the trade balance of seafood products, which in 2009 reached 94,447,028 kilogrammes worth US$ 486,553,588.

Similarly, Avila affirmed that France, Germany, Italy, England and Spain also want to open up and, in some cases, expand acquisitions of Mexican marine resources.

In order to satisfy those expectations, the official explained that CONAPESCA has reinforced its dialogue with the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), to learn in detail the requirements that must be fulfilled by Mexican producers for the export of food products. "In some cases they are very rigorous, but nothing that we cannot satisfy," Corral Avila added.

Before the catastrophe took place, Mexico sold 41,121,787 kg of shrimp worth USD 332 million to the US market; as well as 1,923,514 kg of crab worth US$ 22 million; 3,485,499 kg of grouper worth USD 19 million; and 4,494,792 kilogrammes of tuna worth US$ 13 million

Other US-bound exports included 1,119,860 kilogrammes of oysters at US$ 5 million; 5,575,127 kilogrammes of sardines worth US$ 5 million; and 100.194 kilogrammes of abalone worth US$ 5 million.

The economic and environmental impact of the spill could increase if it reaches popular and tourist beaches and the fragile coral reefs that surround the Florida peninsula.

There are also concerns that huge underwater plumes of crude could be starving the gulf of oxygen and thus harming the marine environment far more than previously thought.