10-28 IAN Beef in Mexico

 U.S. Meat Export Federation Looks to Expand U.S. Beef in Mexico.

 The U.S. Meat Export Federation has launched a new outreach program to boost U.S. beef exports to regional supermarkets in Mexico, which is already the largest destination for U.S. beef. What? I didn’t know that. I called up Wyatt Prescott, Executive V.P. of the Idaho Cattleman’s Association:“The biggest market for US beef is Mexico? Yes. Why would that be? The Hispanic market per capita are the largest beef consumers in the world. There culinary innovations and recipes hinge on the primary source proteins which is beef. It is not just in Mexico but in all South American countries. Brazil, Argentina, I think Argentina is the largest per capita consumer of beef, it is more of a cultural thing and hence that is why Mexico is the largest consumer of our product.”

 The current focus of the program is educating and training retail meat case operators to modernize their facilities, an effort conducted through the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. Through the first half of 2011, U.S. beef and beef variety meat exports to Mexico totaled nearly 280 million pounds valued at $475 million — an increase of 8 percent in volume and 25 percent in value over the same period in 2010.