U.S. pork exports to Mexico hit a record high in 2024, and early numbers show that momentum is still building in 2025.
The U.S. shipped $2.6 billion worth of pork to Mexico last year, the highest on record. In just the first quarter of this year, exports grew another 11%.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation says that growth is driven by rising trust and visibility of U.S. pork across a wide range of markets.
According to Gerardo Rodriguez, “That is due to several reasons. Number one is the confidence that people have on the product. Number two is the amount of exposure that people are seeing the product nowaday. And remember, when we started the Free Trade Agreement in the mid-90s, pork it was perceived just as an ingredient to do further process. Nowadays, we’re seeing not only in the retail sector. We see them in the food service. We see it in the high-end restaurants. We see it also in the convenience stores. So the matter and the fact that you are able to see pork in all the different channels is easier for us to keep expanding the consumption per capita.”
However, the rising demand also brings more competition. All eligible suppliers have zero-duty access, making it critical to maintain the duty-free status of U.S. pork to stay competitive.
