Vicente Gómez Cobo, president of the Mexican Dairy Federation (Femeleche), asked the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum to stop the illegal transfer of cattle along the southern border of Mexico, which causes a loss of 5 billion pesos.
“Today it is necessary to attack the unfair competition, suffered by national producers with the transfer of calves by the southern border of the country, which is estimated at approximately 500 thousand animals a year,” said the businessman in the presentation of the 10th International Dairy Forum, which will take place on April 3 in Chihuahua.
He commented that the arrival of cattle by the southern border floods the local market at a value well below the market price, preventing national calves from having a place.
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He indicated that Mexico is the largest importer of milk in the world and currently 30 percent of its consumption is based on imports.
But, he added, that panorama can be reversed within five years if appropriate public policies are put into practice that strengthen the viability of the sector.
National producers have the ability to respond to local demand, but a thrust is necessary from official instances, he recalled.
“It is necessary that as a country we will dedicate public policies and resources for the activity to be viable,” he said.
If there is no change in attention to this primary sector, the manager warned that it could reach the point that by 2050 half of the milk demand in the country is covered with imports, latent risk when it is taken into account that Mexico is the country more open to the import of milk in the world.
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Among measures that are required is a monetary policy that is not restrictive and allows national producers to access loans to such competitive rates as their counterparts abroad.
Likewise, greater speed of instances such as the SAT is required at the time of executing tax returns and thereby preventing the flow and dynamism of resources from maintaining production.
Regarding the possible imposition of tariffs by the United States, Vicente Gómez Cobo commented that the incidence on the dairy sector would occur if Mexico applies a mirror measure, because 70 percent of the price of inputs for producers are dollarized.
He recalled that the export of milk to the United States is very small and very specific areas, so the affectation in that regard would be marginal.
Last year milk production in the country grew 2.5 percent in part due to the availability of supplies at a good price, a situation that could be reversed if a tariff confrontation between the two nations occurs.
