Reopened Mexican market could be worth $250M to Canadian beef producers, industry rep says

Mexico could eventually be worth at least a quarter-billion dollars annuallyto Canada's beef industry, but producers will need to develop confidence in the reopened market to take advantage of the demand, says John Masswohl of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in June thatMexico had agreed to end its 13-year ban of Canadian beef,during a two-day state visit to Canadaby Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

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The ban, imposed in 2003 over fears of mad cow disease, is set to be liftedat the end of October.

But that won't translate immediately into a rush of exports to Mexico, Masswhol said.

"The problem today is we don't have the same number of cattle," he said.

"The herd size has been reduced because of a lot of these market closures, because a lot of farmers switched from cattle maybe to growing a crop, putting in canola instead of cattle."

But Masswhol saidMexico could, in time,develop intoone of Canada's best export markets for over-30-month cattle and beef.

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