EMBASSY OF MEXICO
Wellington, New Zealand
MEDIA RELEASE – for immediate release
25 February 2015
Mexico: a world leader in livestock farming
In 2014, Mexico was ranked seventh in the world in the production of animal protein, with a total value of 33 billion US
dollars.
The portion of the country set aside for livestock is 113 million hectares, covering as such more than half of Mexico’s
total land area for the production of beef, goat meat, lamb, pork, chicken, honey and dairy products.
Mexico is the world’s fifth largest producer of chicken and eggs, the sixth largest producer of beef, the tenth largest
producer of pork and the twelfth largest producer of milk. The country has the largest herd of goats in the Americas
(numbering about nine million) and it is ranked twenty-second in lamb production.
These figures will continue to increase significantly as an additional 60 million tonnes of meat products will be
required to meet global demand for food between now and 2022.
Mexican farmers are preparing for this huge upsurge which will be generated primarily in the Asia-Pacific region, the
most prosperous on the planet and a region to which Mexico is closely linked through mechanisms of cooperation and
regional economic and trade integration, such as APEC, the Pacific Alliance (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru), NAFTA
and - once negotiations are completed - the TPP.
ENDS