For Christmas and New Year’s Day dinners, it is estimated that Mexicans will consume a total of 3 million turkeys, 34 percent of which came from domestic production with the remaining 66 percent coming from the U.S. and Chile. Ninety-five percent of those imports came from U.S., while the remaining five percent came from Chile.
Marco Parson, president of the Turkey Producers Section of the National Poultry Producers Association (UNA) of Mexico, told the newspaper El Universal that "imports of most concern to the domestic industry are whole turkey, fresh or frozen, accounting for 8 percent of total imports, which are the main competition."
As mentioned in the cited source, of the 155,325 metric tons that have entered Mexico this year, 63 percent were of fresh turkey meat and 19 percent of frozen product. Most imports, 92 percent, are products and raw materials, while only 8 percent is whole turkey. The domestic industry cannot compete, because of the low price of these products and raw materials.
Despite the impact of imports, Parson noted that there has been a 9 percent growth in 2014, and in 2015 the domestic turkey market is expected to grow another 10 percent. Parson also told El Universal that they have grown and are trying to catch up. Both the devaluation of the Mexican peso and the rising international price of this bird have helped the Mexican turkey recover.
While the U.S. produces 350 million turkeys annually, in Mexico only 1.1 million are produced.
