Modest increase expected for Mexico’s poultry industry
Commercial broiler meat production is forecast to hit 3.01 million metric tons (mmt) in 2015, while commercial turkey meat production is estimated to increase slightly to 10,000mt.
Predictions are that the consumption of poultry meat, including turkey, is set to keep rising into 2015, as these products "retain their price advantage over other animal proteins". Despite high feed costs impacting on the price of broiler meat, it still continues to have an advantage over increasing beef and pork prices. Estimates put 2015 consumption at 3.73mmt.
According to the annual poultry and products report from the Global Agricultural Information Network, continued consolidation, along with improved biosecurity measures, has enabled the sector to overcome the challenges seen in 2012 and 2013, when outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) affected the industry.
The outbreaks forced the industry to modernise, with investments made in climate-controlled houses, feed mills, poultry litter processing, mature hen-focused slaughterhouses, and biodigesters, said the FAS.
The report also highlighted the effect that minor disease issues are continuing to have on the Mexican poultry industry, but acknowledged that the work done by the National Poultry Union (UNA), alongside the National Service of Health, Food Safety, and Food Quality (SENASICA) had minimised the after-effects of the 2012 HPAI outbreak, and it was keen to fight any new disease outbreaks that might occur.
An emergency fund (US$2.24m) was recently launched by UNA and the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishery and Food (SAGARPA) in order to deal with issues affecting the poultry sector, with funds likely to be directed at biosecurity-related production costs, as well as providing insurance in the case of disease outbreaks.
Looking at imports, around 98% of Mexico’s chicken and turkey imports for the first five months of this year came from the US, with other supplies from Chile and Canada. The forecast for imports in 2015 stands at 725,000mt.
Despite the opening of a tariff rate quota for chicken, turkey, and mechanically deboned meat for any trading partners with which Mexico does not already have an existing free trade agreement, it is not expected that Brazil is likely to become a major competitor to the US in the near future.
Estimates are that Mexican exports will stand at around 5,000mt next year, as a number of export destinations closed their doors to Mexican poultry imports after the 2012 HPAI outbreak.
