Educational Programs Help Strengthen Demand for U.S. Pork in Mexico

Over the past few months, exports of U.S. pork and pork variety meat to Mexico have been on the upswing. This is especially beneficial to the U.S. pork industry at a time of record-high production.

Gerardo Rodriguez, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) marketing director for Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic, explains that buyer education programs focused on new product development have been very successful in Mexico. While many of these new products are processed items made from U.S. pork hams – the largest-volume pork export item to Mexico – USMEF also promotes new products utilizing U.S. pork shank, ribs and variety meats. The shank is used to make “pork wings,” which are an alternative to chicken wings in sports bars and other casual restaurants, while pork ribs are especially popular in West Coast cities such as Guadalajara. Pork variety meats – including stomach, tongue and brains – are commonly used in tacos, especially in Mexico City and its surrounding region.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: The past few months have seen a strong uptick in U.S> pork exports to Mexico. In this U.S. Meat Export Federation report, we speak with Regional Marketing Director Gerardo Rodriguez about some of the marketing initiatives that are helping drive this trend.

Gerardo Rodriguez: A new educational program was launched this year with the top importers in the country. With them, we have worked on the development of new pork products. How can we give a better value from the way we are merchandising currently? How can we give a better value for the Mexican consumers?

Joe Schuele: Hams are the largest volume item exported to Mexico, and many new products are processed items that utilize hams. But there are also new ways to market items such as pork shank, ribs and variety meat.

Gerardo Rodriguez: A product that we are doing is a cut named pork wings, trying to displace the chicken wings. They take this bone from the pork shank and they peel it – and it actually has more meat, obviously, that the chicken wing. We want to introduce this product so we can have a promotion with it during the Super Bowl. In the region of the Pacific Coast, which is mainly cities such as Guadalajara, we developed a hands-on training program of all the different kinds of ribs – baby back ribs, brisket bone – we want them to know all the different alternatives that they can have. So we show them how to cook the product, how to marinate the product, because these types of products for these specific sectors or channels, are things they are not used to. We work also for variety meats – variety meats are very popular especially for the tacos. Mainly it is the stomach and pork tongue and brain.

Joe Schuele: For more on this and other trade issues, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.