Mexican Pork Exports to the Japanese Marketunder the EPA

摘要

This paper analyses the Mexican pork exports to the Japanese market, before andunder the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between these two countries. As part of this,this study presents, together with statistical information, an overview of the Mexican porkindustry and trade and the exports to Japan under the EPA. It was found that although porkexports to Japan had initiated before EPA, this agreement signifies an opportunity for theMexican pork exports to grow. However, Mexico has not taken a complete advantage of thequotas received in the agreement. The explanation for that might be found in the difficulty toproduce higher quantities and maintain good pork prices due to the increase of animal feedprices in recent years, and also in the high competition between the countries that export porkto Japan. These two aspects become some of the challenges that Mexican pork industry has inorder to increase its exports to Japan.