At the end of 2010, the Brazilian Poultry Association and the Brazilian Chicken Producers and Exporters Association merged to create the UBABEF. Then in 2014 they joined the Brazilian Association of Pork Producers and Exporters and created the powerful entity of the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA), involving chicken, eggs, swine and poultry breeders. Brazil is today the largest chicken exporter in the world.
In a similar fashion, the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE), once only poultry, now involves the feed and meat industries. This has created probably the most important trade show in the world, where you can see a very wide range of possibilities.
Last year in Mexico - the second largest poultry producing country in Latin America - an organization called "México Unido Proteína Animal" (United Mexico Animal Protein) or MUPA was created. MUPA is made of nine associations involving beef producers (CNG, AMEG), swine producers (Oporpa, Opormex), broiler, turkey and egg producers (UNA), the Mexican Meat Council, as well as beef and pork exporters (Mexican Beef, Mexican Pork) and the association of meat processing quality improvement (ANETIF).
The rationale behind this is to promote animal protein consumption so as to strengthen the animal ag industry as well as to support small producers. They all also want to position animal agriculture as a focal point of national economics.
I would like to propose another objective: to be a common front against the lobbyist groups fighting animal production. We need a united force against misinformation.
Actions will certainly help emphasize the importance of all animal proteins in the feeding and nutrition of Mexicans, in a country with a total meat per capita consumption of 65 kg, still well below figures from other countries. The chicken per capita consumption is of 32.86 kg and 377 eggs.
In a meeting last year with the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, Villalobos, he assured that promotion of animal protein will allow for the reactivation of the domestic market and will strengthen Mexico's international reputation of high quality meat products, particularly in this post-pandemic era.
With reference to the latter, he said that the Mexican government will be promoting meat products for exports by opening new markets. This is exactly what the Brazilian government has been working with the ABPA in the last several years through the APEX agency. As a journalist, I have been part of those programs in Brazil.
Although Mexico is a net importer of grains and oilseeds, it is located just next to the big U.S. grain basket, and with a dedicated transportation system – the railroads (plus vessels, of course). I think Mexico should leverage this momentum.
What do you think?
