MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina may resume beef exports to Mexico

Mexican experts had inspected Argentine beef plants in mid-2022

Argentina's Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries announced Friday that 22 beef processing plants had been approved for shipments to Mexico after a 20-year hiatus.

 The South American authorities confirmed having received a note from Mexico's Sanitary Agency (Senasica) specifying the conditions under which the opening of the market to deboned and matured beef from Argentina became operative.

It took eight years of negotiations to reach this stage. Mexico had previously reopened its doors to Argentine corn, it was also explained.
According to Argentine Foreign Ministry sources quoted by BAE Negocios, these negotiations had been “strongly promoted by Presidents Alberto Fernández and Andrés Manuel López Obrador” (AMLO).

“This is an achievement of great relevance for Argentina and a new extremely important market that opens for our beef exports,” the sources went on while insisting that Argentina already has the export channels open to the European Union, the United States, China, Chile, and Israel, among other buyers.

“Mexico thus joins the list of countries with the highest level of sanitary surveillance that recognize the safety and quality of our meats,” they went on.
Argentina's National Agrifood Health and Quality Service (Senasa) President Diana Guillén praised her agency's staff for the new achievement and recalled that in July 2022, a Senasica team had inspected the production facilities.

Between January and November of 2022, Argentine exports to Mexico reached US$ 986 million, a 54% interannual increase, with US$ 500 million stemming from agro-industry, which recorded a 90% yoy growth. The main products exported in 2022 were sunflower oil, wheat, soybean oil, and wines.

In 2021, Mexico imported a total of US$ 750 million worth of boneless beef either fresh or frozen.

(Source: BAE Negocios)