Tuesday brought good news for Canadian beef producers this week, with the announcement that the Mexican market would reopen for cattle over thirty months.
The change will take effect October 1, which the Canadian Cattlemen's Association (CCA) says is particularly important, as that's traditionally when producers send most of their breeding cows to market.
The CCA's director of government and international relations John Masswohl explains this news has been a long time coming, as the issue goes back to 2003 when the border was shut after the one case of BSE in Canada.
"Mexico was one of the first markets to re-open on the under-30-month (beef), and we've always wanted to (regain) the over-30-month," he says. "I can't tell you how many meetings I've been at with Mexicans, our industry counterparts, as well as government to government meetings, and we've finally got (it) done."
Prior to BSE in 2003, Mexico was one of the top importers of Canadian beef, sending somewhere between $270 million to $290 million of beef per year to Mexico. Approximately 20 to 25 per cent of that was over-30-month.
In the past three years, Mexico has been Canada's third largest export market, averaging $136 million in annual Canadian beef exports to Mexico from 2011 to 2015.
Source : Portageonline