Strip loin steaks were served to International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at a dinner last week after Mexico announced it would once again accept Canadian beef from animals older than 30 months.
It was a fitting menu item to acknowledge a full re-opening of the Mexican market that has not accepted over-30-month (OTM) beef since 2003, when BSE was found in Canada.
Though both Mexico and the United States have accepted under-30-month (UTM) beef since August 2003, the restrictions on OTM and some types of offal remained. Mexico will remove that restriction Oct. 1.
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
It hasn’t come too soon for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
“We’ve only been working on this one for 13 years,” said John Masswohl, the CCA’s director of government and international relations.
“I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been to, with our Mexican counterparts and meetings of ministers along the way. It’s on the agenda every single time, the over-30-month trade, and it’s been hard to get, but now it’s finally happened.”
Canada exported $270 to $290 million worth of beef annually to Mexico before BSE. About 20 percent of it was OTM.
Masswohl said he thinks Canadian beef exports could return to those levels, given a larger herd and the right price.
CCA president Dan Darling, in Ottawa for the announcement, said it might encourage Canadian producers to expand their herds.
“When our production increases to previous levels, I believe that Mexico could again import more than $250 million per year like it used to,” Darling said in a CCA news release.
“In addition to expanded access for OTM beef, we look forward to potential future opportunities that today’s an-nouncement of fully restored access for Canada for all beef and beef products, regardless of the age of the cattle, will bring.”
Canada Beef said Mexico’s announcement “sets an important precedent for market access conditions in other markets around the world.”
Mexico is Canada’s third largest beef export customer, last year buying 19,400 tonnes valued at $155 million.
The Canadian Meat Council said the change would mean incremental sales of $10 million a year to Mexico. Incremental value occurs when a market is willing to pay more for certain products.
Masswohl said one reason Mexico gave for the delay in fully normalizing beef trade was that until about two years ago, it could not export its own beef to Canada.
“That was largely because they had never asked,” said Masswohl.
“Before about five years ago, Mexico really didn’t have an export beef industry. They were entirely focused on their domestic market. But they’ve actually done a good job in developing an export industry. When they told us that concern, we were supportive of them making the request.”
Mexico now has unlimited duty-free access to Canada for its beef, although relatively little is sold here. However, Masswohl said that access helped solve Canada’s beef trade issue.
“It’s good to have friends on the inside. I would say that the Mexican cattle producers have been a good ally for us on that, as well as other issues we’ve worked with them on. We worked really closely with them on the COOL (country-of-origin labelling) issue.”
The Oct. 1 timing for a full re-opening of the Mexican beef market is also a benefit to Canadian producers, Masswohl added.
“We wanted to make sure this was done in time for what is the peak over-30-month time of the year, and that’s when farmers are doing that preg checking in the fall and if they’ve got a cow that isn’t pregnant, it usually does not get fed over the winter time,” he said.
“October-November are really important times for marketing those over-30-month animals, so it’s good to see that we’ll have that option at that time of the year.”
