Big potential to export pork meat from the Netherlands to Mexico
In 2016, imports of pork meat from abroad into Mexico supplied 37.75% of national consumption. Mexico is the third pork meat importer worldwide, after China and Japan.
From 2006 to 2016, imports have been growing at an annual average rate of 8.89%, attaining 755,000 tons. In 2017, it is expected that the increase will be of 5.96%, compared to the previous year (800,000 tons). Mexico has presented historically a negative trade balance regarding pork meat: Mexican exports were roughly 106,099 tons in 2016.
In 2016, 85.7% of total pork meat imports came from the United States and 14.2% from Canada. Mexico also imports live animals, around 25,000 live pork, mainly from the United States, although in 2015 and 2016 about one third of live imports came from Canada.
For the United States, 26.3% of pork meat value was exported to Japan, 22.8% to Mexico and 13.4% to Canada.
In the last years, pork meat has been a good substitute to beef meat for the Mexican consumer, price wise, but still more expensive than poultry meat. In 2016, annual pork meat consumption per capita was of 18.6 kilos; poultry meat, 33.4 kilos; and beef meat, 14.8 kilos.
The negotiation process between the Netherlands and Mexico in order to get market access for Dutch pork meat is ongoing since November 2015. An inspection from the veterinarian Mexican authorities is programmed for May. The NAFTA renegotiation process has awaken interest of Mexican pork meat importers to diversify their sources from abroad. Also, due the renewed Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mexico, duties will go down from 45% to 0%, for virtually all pork meat products.