| | |  Business News | September 2008 
Mexico Sees Meat Exports to U.S. Resuming This Wee
 Christopher Doering - Reuters
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 |  | The government is still auditing sanitary conditions in Mexico and working toward a resolution of the dispute with the Mexican government.
- Keith Williams, USDA |  | | | |
Mexico City - Mexican meat producers will start shipping meat again to the United States this week after temporarily halting exports to inspect sanitary conditions at processing plants, producers said on Monday.
Mexico informed U.S. authorities on August 29 it was suspending meat shipments voluntarily after U.S. inspectors found violations at seven Mexican processing facilities last month.
"Mexican meat producers took the initiative, in coordination with the federal government (to do the revision) and we hope to resume exports this week without any problem," said Ruben Garza the head Mexico's Livestock Feeders Association.
Garza said producers reviewed mostly administrative protocol to ensure documentation of each part of the production chain.
"If you buy a piece of meat you are going to know where it came from, if it was imported or produced here ... in which state, at which ranch, all of these details to improve traceability," he said.
The suspension came after USDA inspectors in Mexico revoked exporting licenses from seven pork and beef processing plants due to concerns about hygiene.
Keith Williams, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the government was still auditing sanitary conditions in Mexico and working toward a resolution of the dispute with the Mexican government.
Tensions over food safety have simmered this year after U.S. authorities linked Mexican tomatoes and fresh chiles to a salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,300 people in the United States. Mexico denied its produce was the cause.
Only about 2 percent of total meat and poultry imported by the United States comes from Mexico and pork producers say the bulk of Mexican exports go to Asian markets.
(Editing by Marguerita Choy) |
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