The US now supplies nearly 80% of Mexico’s dairy imports, and that could go up.
You have represented USDEC in the Mexican market for 20 years. What is your proudest accomplishment?
The main success for us is that we are now about pretty close to getting 80% of market share in the imported dairy Mexican market. So that’s the main success, and NAFTA has been the most important tool.
Mexico is the largest market for US dairy exports. Could you elaborate on that?
Mexico has about 120 million people. We have a dairy deficit, but this doesn’t mean that Mexico does not produce milk. Mexico is an important milk producer in the world, but we have a deficit. About 35% of the milk demand being in form of milk powders or cheese or ice creams or yoghurts – it comes from imports. So it’s a big market and the US is in a very good position to supply that.
Could you talk a little bit about the Gouda cheese story?
Maybe five years ago, we discovered a very big opportunity to increase imports of Gouda cheese from the US. It was a great job from USDEC members. They spent a lot of time, a lot of resources.
The US now supplies 80% of Mexico’s dairy imports. Can we keep it up or even grow market share a little bit?
The Mexican food industry is improving a lot and is becoming more efficient. We are demanding more ingredients, more cheese, more dairy solids in general, and so I think that this market share could be increasing – not big gains, but gaining at the same pace of the economy. So 2% or 3% gains are possible. My perception is that we are going to keep growing that market share. Yes.
Mark O'Keefe is vice-president of editorial services at USDEC and editor-in-chief for USDEC’s website and The US Dairy Exporter Blog. Working with talented colleagues, he utilises the best practices of journalism and digital marketing to build global demand for US dairy products.
