January 6, 2005

 

 

Mexico's Meat Industry Benefited From Mad Cow Scares

 

The Mexican beef industry has profited from the scare over mad cow diseases in the United States and Canada.

 

Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga said Wednesday that Mexico's meat industry has managed to fill the gap in supply since US beef was first barred in December 2003 after the discovery of a Washington State animal with mad cow disease - bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

 

The measure was later eased to allow cuts of meat without bone or nerve material, though machine-boned meat remains barred.

 

Usabiaga said many Mexican producers had invested heavily and are now matching the quality and efficiency of those to the north. He said they should be able to hold onto the new market share after import restrictions end.

 

"I believe this is going to be permanent," he said.

 

However, some industry officials were more cautious.

 

Daniel Curiel, president of the Mexican Meat Council, said the industry might keep some of the market, but said it had not been able to fill all of the demand left by the absence of US cuts.

As an example, one of the most popular cuts in Mexico - a skirt steak known as "arrachera" - is still widely imported due to insufficient local production.

 

"We can't think of substituting everything," he said.

 

Mexican producers already had been shifting toward US-style packaging common in supermarkets, away from the old practice of cutting meat off a carcass as the customer waited.

 

Usabiaga's department estimates that overall beef production increased only a modest 4.5 percent in 2004, to 1.52 million tons from 1.49 million a year earlier.

 

The Agriculture Department's coordinator for livestock, Jose Luis Gallardo, said he expected another 4.5 percent increase in 2005.

 

Overall imports of beef, most from the United States and Canada, hit almost 354,000 tons - worth US$1.4 billion - in 2002 and slipped to 259,278 tons in 2003.

 

The independent National Confederation of Livestock Organizations says it expects imports to run nearly 200,000 tons under this year's restrictions.

 

Last week, Canadian officials confirmed that mad cow disease had been found in a dairy cow from Alberta.