CANCUN, Mexico – Canadian beef will start moving into Mexico this week and the head of Canada’s beef export federation is hailing it as a “significant” step on the climb out of the marketing hole created by the BSE crisis.
These will be the first beef shipments into Mexico since May 20, when the federal government announced that bovine spongiform encephalopathy had been discovered in an Alberta cow.
Mexico’s decision to accept Canadian beef follows confirmation last week that the United States will allow strictly regulated trans-shipments through the U.S. to Mexico.
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“This is a very significant step, a huge step,” Canadian Beef Export Federation president Ted Haney said in a Sept. 12 interview during World Trade Organization negotiations in Cancun.
“It’s going to take significant pressure off us.”
Haney said Mexico, with Canada’s support, also is lobbying the U.S. to allow it to import up to 15,000 Mexican-owned dairy breeding animals from Canada.
“That would be limited to Mexican-owned young cattle right now, but it also would be a significant move, a sort of precedent to look at.”
However, American approval is necessary because the U.S. has threatened to ban live cattle imports from Mexico if it moves too far too fast on re-admitting Canadian cattle and beef. It means it will not happen soon.
“It is frustrating that this has to be vetted by the Americans who take their time,” Haney said.
“It is frustrating for the Mexicans too, when it appears American decisions move toward protection, rather than science.”
Still, Haney said the Mexican decision to accept low-risk muscle cuts from animals younger than 30 months is an important breakthrough.
He also had other thoughts on the direction that the beef trade is taking:
- Mexican imports will double in October from pre-ban levels to 12,000 tonnes per month – 144,000 tonnes on an annual basis.
- American imports, once fully resumed, will be cut in half from pre-ban levels of 30,000 tonnes per month to 15,000 tonnes.
- Several other countries, including Philippines and Antigua, soon will open their borders to Canadian beef cuts.
- Russia is proposing to import beef from cows older than 30 months as long as each slaughtered cow is tested for BSE. While not Canada’s preferred solution, Haney said it might be worth doing for $50 per head in testing fees. Last year, the European Union sold 400,000 tonnes to Russia on that basis.
Haney said he expects that once the partial openings of Mexican and U.S. markets are in full effect, Canada will be on track to export 330,000 tonnes annually compared to 525,000 tonnes last year.
The ability to export cuts from younger cattle will allow Canadian processors to grind up to 100,000 tonnes of boneless cuts from animals older than 30 months for the domestic market.
“That’s meat from 400,000 to 500,000 animals,” he said. “It will certainly start to relieve pressure in our system.”
