The termination of the Mexican antidumping duty order on U.S. lightweight hog exports could boost the total value of hog exports overall to an average of $100 million per year, says Dermot Hayes, Iowa State ag economist.
“Opening the market in Mexico is a big win for U.S. pork producers,” says National Pork Producers Council President Jon Caspers, Swaledale, IA. “Most of these lightweights sell at a significant discount in the U.S., but in Mexico we can sell them at a premium.”
In the late 1990s, the U.S. began to ship lightweight hogs to Mexico. Mexico responded by filing an antidumping case. “Since late 1999, large antidumping duties have shut U.S. producers out of this market,” says Caspers.
With the duty gone, Hayes estimates shipments of “600,000 head of lightweight hogs within six months to Mexico, eventually increasing to 1 million head once the market has fully adjusted.”
The total value to U.S. producers from those expanded sales of lightweight hogs to Mexico is put at $16/lightweight hog exported, or an additional $16 million.