Meat imports and rising production costs put pressure on Mexican pig farmers

The constant increase in production costs, as well as the import of meat, are factors that are putting pressure on livestock farmers, mainly affecting pig farmers, a sector that is going through a critical situation, said the president of the Regional Livestock Union of Querétaro (UGRQ), Alejandro Ugalde Tinoco. This problem is aggravated by the disparity between production costs and the prices at which cattle are sold; while pig farmers receive between 29 and 30 pesos per kilo of pork meat, the production cost is around 38 pesos per kilo and the public price is around 130 pesos (1 peso = R$0.28) For this reason, the sector is fighting for the creation of a price regulatory body, in which the federal bodies have influence, to reduce the gap that persists between the payment received by the producer and the final price of the product. For about five years now, cattle ranchers have been experiencing a constant increase in production costs, pressured largely by increases in inputs ...