US pork demand in Mexico to recover by end June

Demand for US pork in Mexico is on the rebound and should return to pre-AH1N1 flu levels by the end of June, according to Chad Russell, the US Meat Export Federation (USMEF) regional director for Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Russell said the organisation has conducted surveys indicating that the vast majority of consumers in Mexico do not believe that people can contract AH1N1 flu from eating pork.

For the first four months of 2009, Mexico was the largest volume export market for US pork, importing more than 390 million pounds, at a value of US$265 million, which represented a 71-percent increase in volume and a 62-percent increase in value over the same period last year.

USMEF spokesman Joe Schuele said that these results, however, only capture one to two weeks of the AH1N1 flu-related slowdown.

Schuele said USMEF is expecting May to be the month that is most impacted by AH1N1 flu with demand showing improvement back toward normal throughout the month of June.

The flu dampened demand on pork in general, meaning there also is a glut of Mexican pork on the domestic market that has made prices more affordable for the domestic product than for US pork. However, Russell said USMEF believes domestic inventory will be worked off by the end of June as well.

USMEF is launching four or five pork promotions with major Mexican supermarket chains in the upcoming weeks in an aggressive bid to rebuild demand for US pork.