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 Three representatives
of the Iowa Pork Producers Association recently teamed up with
16 other people to promote Iowa and Iowa products to companies
and people in Mexico. The mission took three different focuses
as representatives of meat, grain and manufactured products worked
in separate teams to promote Iowa products.
While in Mexico, the meat team visited the
two major economic centers of Mexico City and Guadalajara, where
the group received briefings by several U.S. government officials.
"Mexico is the second largest market for U.S. pork,"
said Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair who serves as the
President of the IPPA. U.S. pork has a 90% share of Mexico's
pork import market.
"Projections for the export of U.S. pork
to Mexico are difficult to make due to the uncertainty of alternative
meat proteins," said Carney. The single case of BSE coupled
with the outbreaks of avian influenza in the United States complicate
projections.
 As the U.S. is
experiencing difficulties in exporting beef and poultry, importing
countries are having trouble in sourcing those meats and are
shifting to alternatives such as pork. As U.S. consumers have
more available beef and poultry to consume, the U.S. should have
more pork to export as countries are looking for alternative
meat proteins.
"Increase of pork exports should help
save Iowa and U.S. meat producers from a glut of meat proteins
that could exist without aggressive pork exports," said
Carney. U.S. pork exports for the first two months of 2004 have
increased in value by 73% to Mexico and 26% in the world market.
 Scott Tapper,
a pork producer from Webster City and Chairman of the IPPA's
Foreign Market Development Committee reported, "the participants
of the meat team also toured meat processing companies, toured
various markets and supermarkets, met with officials of meat
processing companies, and met with trade specialists." In
central Mexico, about 75% of the food sales are through traditional
markets, however, sales in supermarkets are growing rapidly.
 Some of the processors
indicated they have an interest in purchasing pork carcasses.
"Concern was expressed about the large size of many carcasses
in the U.S.," stated Tapper. "It is important that
pork producers and packers in the U.S. better understand the
needs of the various Mexican consumers," continued Tapper.
 The mission was
coordinated by the Iowa Department of Economic Development and
their trade consultants located in Mexico. Representing the IPPA
in addition to Carney and Tapper was Rich Degner, Executive Director.
Representing the Iowa Beef Industry Council were Scott McGregor
of Nashua and Dan Peterson of Muscatine. Representing the Iowa
Soybean Promotion Board on the meat team was Neal Keppy of Dixon.
Others serving as part of the meat team were Scott Miller and
Majid Shoghi of the Burke Corporation in Nevada, May-May Ng of
CK International in Waukee, and Mark Fischer of the Iowa Department
of Economic Development.
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| A
look at Mexico |
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Mexico is about three times the size of Texas,
or one-fifth the size of the United States with only 12% of the
land arable and 2.6% irrigated. It has a population of approximately
105 million people and is currently growing at 1.5% annually.
Mexico has a young population with approximately 50% of the people
less than 25 years of age. Almost 75% of the people live in an
urban area. There are an estimated 25 million rural poor people.
Approximately 50% of the farmers grow crops on farms of 5 hectares
(12.5 acres) or less with many not holding titles to their land.
Dry edible beans and white corn are basic to the culture.
Pork production in Mexico continues to shift
toward large vertically integrated operations. Approximately 60%
of the production is from large operations, 35% from mid-sized
family farms, and 5% from subsistence farms.
Mexico's largest source of revenue is from
petroleum. The next largest source of revenue comes from immigrants
in the U.S., followed by tourism. Under-employment is still a
huge problem in Mexico.
Since NAFTA, the U.S./Mexico agricultural trade
has doubled to $13.8 billion. Mexico has about 30 free trade agreements
in the world, which is more than other countries.
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