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In Uncertain Trade Climate, USMEF Solidifies Customer Relationships in Mexico

Published: Aug 21, 2018
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You may download the audio file here




With retaliatory duties on U.S. pork and other potential trade barriers creating uncertainty in the Mexican market, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom recently led a delegation of USMEF staff members through a series of meetings with importers, processors, retailers and other key buyers of U.S. red meat in Mexico City, Monterrey and Chihuahua.

Halstrom explains that the primary purpose of these meetings was to solidify the excellent business relationships the U.S. meat industry has in Mexico, and to reassure these customers that the United States remains a very reliable red meat supplier. He notes that while the U.S. captures a dominant share of Mexico's imported pork and beef market, the U.S. industry cannot take this position for granted because competitors now have a heightened level of interest in the Mexican market.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: With retaliatory duties on U.S. pork and other potential trade barriers creating uncertainty in the Mexican market, U.S. Meat Export Federation President & CEO Dan Halstrom just completed a series of meetings with key buyers in Mexico. He has more details in this USMEF report:

Dan Halstrom: We just returned from a week in Mexico, and the objective was really twofold. No. 1, being our largest volume market on pork and one of our top couple of markets on beef, we want to reiterate to the trade our commitment to the Mexico market. Despite the fact we have some duties at the moment, it still is our most important volume market and one that we're committed to long-term. We wanted to also highlight the fact that it's our feeling that the current trade environment with the duties is short-term. The hope being that NAFTA 2.0 will be concluded in the short term, and I think what we heard from the trade wholeheartedly was that they're hearing the same things that we are, that NAFTA is indeed making some progress.

Joe Schuele: While the United States is still the dominant pork supplier to Mexico, Halstrom emphasized that the U.S. industry cannot take this position for granted:

Dan Halstrom: Obviously any time you have a tariff, there's an immediate correlation to a value impact, and I think we will see a value impact but I feel like the volume is still hanging in there pretty well. That being said, we do know that Mexico through this duty-free allocation that they’ve put out there targeted toward non-U.S. supplies of pork that there's quite a few examples of buyers that are starting to test the waters a bit especially on bellies out of Europe, and we also know that there's been some buying on frozen hams. I think this amount of product that has been bought on a frozen basis is minimal, but the thing that worries me long-term is that we've invited some of our competitors to the party, so that's always a concern long-term and one that we're taking very seriously. With 85 percent of the import market share being U.S. pork we want to solidify that position and I think we did that.

Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.

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The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry. It is funded by USDA; the beef, pork, lamb, corn and soybean checkoff programs, as well as its members representing nine industry sectors: beef/veal producing & feeding, pork producing & feeding, lamb producing & feeding, packing & processing, purveying & trading, oilseeds producing, feedgrains producing, farm organizations and supply & service organizations.