Mexico is expected to have the most rapid increase in imports of poultry products from 2013 to 2023, making it the largest poultry importer worldwide next year, ahead of Japan, according to USDA.

With a cumulative growth of 68.7%, Mexico will be ahead of China (44.7%), Saudi Arabia (27.4%), the European Union (5.4%) and Japan (5.1%).

Mexico is the sixth largest producer of poultry meat in the world, with an estimated 3 million tonnes in 2013, according to the Mexico's National Union of Poultry Farmers (UNA). However domestic demand for poultry products is expected to grow faster than production of these products in this country.

Chicken, one of the cheapest protein in the Mexican market, is the meat most sold in the country and approximately 12% is imported from the United States, Chile and Brazil.

The USDA projections show that nearly a quarter of the growth in global poultry imports over the next decade will be required by Mexico.

According to the USDA report, in 2023, Brazil would remain the world's largest poultry exporter, which would record 4 million 867,000 tonnes, followed by the United States, with 4 million 272,000 tonnes exported.