Mexico’s tuna market shows growth despite U.S. “dolphin safe” standard

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In spite of a series of threats from the United States government , as well as a negotiation process for the new North American trade agreement (USMCA) and the lost battle of “Dolphin safe,” Mexican tuna exports to the U.S. have not decreased.

The general director of the Maritime Industrial Group (Grupomar) , Antoni Guerra Autrey , said that the company had been shipping their products to the northern country for almost 20 years. Tuna exports have even shown annual growth rates of 12% to 18% in the past four years.

The director commented that USD$20 million worth of tuna products were sold last year.

It is worth noting that tuna is one of the most popular types of fish in people’s diets all over the world.

This increase in sales is due to a high demand for product on the part of U.S. food supply chains, which are aimed at ethnic groups and immigrants.

The tuna market offers a unique opportunity to embrace a multicultural standing that has shown an increase in California, Texas, Chicago, and both North and South Carolina .

“This is a growing market and we are launching new products, some of which already exist in Mexico,” stated the head of Grupomar, a corporate group comprising Mexican companies in the maritime and fisheries sector.

In spite of this, the commercial relationship between both countries regarding tuna trade is still limited, since U.S. food supply chains are not allowed to buy Mexican tuna due to the country’s so-called “dolphin safe” standard.

The United States won a 10-year legal battle over “dolphin safe” tuna-labeling earlier this year, when the World Trade Organization’s appeals judges dismissed Mexico’s argument that the U.S. labeling rules violated WTO rules.

“We lost the third part of the trial at a moment when we were still renegotiating NAFTA and the U.S. was threatening to leave the WTO due to their handling of their trade war with China. I think the final ruling came at a bad time,” he said.

The also vice-president of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the National Farming Council (CNA) indicated that the Mexican company would continue to implement strategies for growth in the United States, Panama, and Canada.

The Maritime Industrial Group also sells 5% of its production to Qatar and is planning to reach the Russian market, once all proper permits are delivered by the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS).

According to data from the Agrifood and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP), tuna, shrimp, tilapia, lobster, bream, octopus, and sardine are the most important products in Mexico’s fisheries sector, with an overall production of 2.1 million tons and a market value of MXN$29.81 million.