Quietly but steadily, Mexico's animal protein industry is getting stronger and sets a foot in the export market. For instance, last year, Mexico's swine industry did well in exports to China, sending more than 853,000 tons of pork to China. Opormex, the pork producers organization said that between 2019 and 2020, exports grew 50%, mainly because of China. The good news is that the country is ready to double that amount this year. There is a lot of potential, but it all depends on sorting out bureaucracy.
The pandemic situation has made things more difficult. Chinese sanitation inspectors cannot visit Mexico to authorize farms and processing plants, so they are trying to figure out whether virtual tours can be done. As one Mexican official said, this is an opportunity to diversify commerce, balance trade flows and strengthen relations.
On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) just released its "Grain: World Markets and Trade" report of May 2021, in which it reports that Mexican corn is projected up 500,000 tons to a record 17 million tons, based on growing feed demand, particularly in the poultry sector. Chicken and eggs are very affordable animal proteins. But the swine sector also takes a good chunk of feed production - a total of 23%. Let's keep in mind that Mexico is the sixth largest feed producer in the world.
On the other hand, although Mexico is the eighth-largest producer of corn (mostly white corn for human consumption), the country depends on imports of yellow corn for feed use predominantly from the United States. Mexico is the No. 1 U.S. corn importer, in which proximity plays an important role for grains availability.
Poultry proteins started 2021 with good figures. Growth rates above 2% are expected, at least for eggs. Nevertheless, there is an unfinished business yet. While pork exports are on the rise, the poultry industry is unable to export products because of the poultry health unresolved situation. Although under control, there is still much to be done.
Who knows how things will be in the next five or ten years, but we might be having another big animal protein export player on the rise in front of us. Also, last year in Mexico a united front called "México Unido Proteína Animal" (United Mexico Animal Protein) or MUPA was created. Let's keep an eye on Mexico.
What do you think?
