After an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation on pork hams and shoulders launched by Mexico in December, U.S Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is doing everything possible to provide exporters with information to share with Mexican authorities.
USMEF Vice President of Economic Analysis Erin Borror says strong demand for U.S. pork in Mexico has pushed importers to outbid other buyers in the region, taking larger volumes at higher prices.
“Mexico is our top export destination for U.S. pork,” she says. “They are our dominant customer for hams. So if we look at our total U.S. pork and variety meat exports to Mexico, in 2025 they will have exceeded about 1.2 million metric tons and valued around $2.8 billion.”
Those are both new records, Borror points out. Mexico will have accounted for about 42% of U.S. pork export volume last year.
“Mexico is absolutely a critical market, and importantly, these exports to Mexico have gone at higher prices,” she says. “Mexico has had what seemed like an insatiable demand for U.S. pork and those bone-in hams (fresh), flowing 24/7, are a perfect fit into Mexico’s vast processing sector.”
U.S. pork production peaked in 2020, so it has had some relative stability on the supply side, Borror adds.
“Mexico continued to pull that product, and thus larger volumes at higher prices,” she says. “That’s demand. There is no dumping factor whatsoever. So it’s a demand-driven market. That’s what we continue to see.”
Demand for U.S. pork in Mexico has also been driven by disease pressure, Borror explains. Like many pork-producing countries, Mexico’s domestic industry has battled porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus.
USMEF says it is working closely with the National Pork Producers Council and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in responding to the investigation.
