- The support of Secretaría de Economía would be fundamental.
- Through public policies, production and consumption of Mexican products would be encouraged.
Mexico City, October 25th, 2017. If, despite the efforts undertaken by Mexican authorities, it is not posible to keep NAFTA in force, the canecellation of the agreement would be a good opportunity to strengthen the Mexican livestock sector, said César Quesada Macías, president of the Unión Nacional de Avicultores.
The also vice president of livestock of the Consejo Nacional Agropecuario, mentioned that against the likelihood of NAFTA being terminated, he support of authorities of Secretaría de Economía (SE) through the implementation of public policies that generate grater value to the productive chain.
This was expressed on the potential of the county to increase its national production and consumption as shown in the table:
He said that the use of import quotas should be a complementary strategy to balance the national market.
He examplified that SE has used unilateral quotas for the import of:egg in 2012, chicken 2013, turkey 2014 and beef in 2017.
Quesada Macías argued that a measure of support to the Mexican livestock sector of: egg, chichen, beef, pork, turkey, sheep and goats, milk and honey, would be the granting of duty-free import quotas for aforementioned products, it will be carried out in an orderly, scheduled manner and through consultations with national producers.
“This procedure would allow to satisfy the demand for food in the national market, while generating certainty in the investments producers in Mexico”, he said.
In the same panorama, an additional measure of support, it would be that the dumping cases, that national producers will present were analyzed and applied with priority in case it is so.
He reported that Mexico occupies eleventh place worldwide in livestock production.
On other hand, estimated that the value of livestock production for 2016 rangesfrom 400 billion pesos annually. In 2014 the value ofitsproduction reached 346 million pesos, however, by 2015 it exceded 382 billion pesos.
Highlighted the animal portein offer that Mexico has, which oscillates in 22 million tons annually. In that sense, he showed during 2016, Mexico produced 3.2 million tons of chicken meat, 2.7 million tons of egg, 1.8 million tons of beef, 11.7 million liters of milk, 1.3 million tons of pork and 55 thousand tons of honey, plus about 116 thousand tons of turkey, goat meat and sheep meat.
He pointed out that in case of NAFTA ruptura, the challenges and opportunities would also occur in the Mexican countryside, asit would encourage the strengthening of the productive chain to supply national livestock sector.
“We must recognize that we have great complementarity with the United States in terms of supply of agricultural inputs for the preparation of feed for animals. Por ejemplo, importamos de ese país: 98% del maíz amarillo, 100% del sorgo, 100% de la pasta de soya y el 87% del frijol soya, lo que significa una importación de casi 19 millones de toneladas, de un total de 31 millones de toneladas de granos forrajeros y oleaginosas que consume el sector pecuario nacional, anualmente” Quesada insisted.
The CNA has been actively participating in the Room of Together during the four renegotiation meetings that have been held in the quest for the renewal of NAFTA.
The livestock vice president of the CNA and president of the UNA, once again expressed his confidence taht the negotiations ro renew NAFTA will generate positive agreements for the agricultural sectors of Mexico, USA and Canada, he concluded
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More info: Lic. Rodolfo Valadez Delgado
Director de Comunicación Institucional
Unión Nacional de Avicultores
Tel: 01 (55) 5564 9322 ext 107
Email: comunicacioninstitucional@una.org.mx
