US cheese exports to Mexico up 54%
Cheese exports from the United States to Mexico recorded a growth of 54.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, bringing it to $ 129 million.
This result occurred prior to the scheduled entry into force of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) as of July 1, 2020, in which the first two countries agreed not to restrict access to the Mexican market for American cheeses labeled with «certain names.»
The United States ranked in 2019 as the sixth largest cheese exporter in the world, with sales of $ 1.571 billion, surpassed by six European countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Denmark.
In all of 2019, exports of cheese from the United States to the Mexican market totaled 419 million dollars, according to data from the Department of Agriculture.
Exports and suppliers
For the first time in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the United States and Mexico have accepted geographical indication rules that improve transparency for the opposition and cancellation procedures of these indications.
They also agreed to establish a mechanism to consult geographical indications in accordance with international agreements and to take into account additional factors that can be considered to define whether a term is a common name rather than a geographical indication.
Mexico ranked last year as the top destination for US cheese exports, with a 26.7% share of that supply.
Meanwhile, the European Union managed to protect all the designations of origin that it proposed in the renewal of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Mexico (TLCUEM).
The agreement will guarantee protection against the imitation of 340 distinctive European foods and beverages in Mexico, the so-called geographical indications.
Examples of these protections are Comte cheese from France, Queijo São Jorge cheese from Portugal, Szegedi szalámi from Hungary and Topoloveni Magiun plums from Romania.
Geographical indications are names that protect the quality and reputation of a distinctive product of a region (for example, Florida oranges or Champagne).
