Mexico agriculture secretary says still no date for restarting cattle exports to U.S.

Mexico Metropolis | Reuters — Mexican Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegue mentioned on Wednesday that Mexico and the US haven’t but set a date to renew Mexican cattle exports amid an outbreak of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite.

Berdegue mentioned he spoke to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a video convention and that that they had made advances however nonetheless didn’t have a date for reopening the U.S. border to Mexican cattle.

Why it issues: The U.S. ban on Mexican cattle imports has contricted an already tight cattle provide, contributing to report excessive costs.

“We now have made appreciable progress, and I’m very optimistic,” he mentioned in President Claudia Sheinbaum’s dailymorning press convention.

They agreed to check modular cellular vegetation in Mexico that might enhance sterile fly manufacturing by as much as 20 million extra flies every week if profitable, Berdegue mentioned, including that this was the primary case of the vegetation getting used.

The U.S. authorities has saved its border largely closed to Mexican cattle imports since May because the screwworm, which infests and may kill livestock if untreated, has moved from Central American into Mexico, rattling the livestock sectors of each nations.

Mexico can also be working to open a sterile fly plant in southern Chiapas state in 2026, with the assistance of a $21 million funding by the U.S. It’s anticipated to ultimately produce 100 million flies weekly.

The method entails breeding hundreds of thousands of flies, sterilizing them with radiation, and releasing them into the wild. When sterile males mate with wild females, no offspring are produced, and the inhabitants collapses over time.

“We’ll solely have the ability to get it in a foreign country as soon as we’ve the extra 100 million flies,” Berdegue mentioned.

Sheinbaum had mentioned final week that Berdegue would journey to the U.S. to fulfill along with his counterparts in individual with the intention of reaching an settlement on the reopening of the border.

The Mexican president introduced on Monday that she and President Donald Trump agreed to increase a looming commerce deadline for “a couple of extra weeks” to debate pending points with Washington.

— Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Natalia Siniawski

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