The focus of negotiations is on expanding the supply of grains, which are essential to Mexico's trade in livestock products.

Mexican government officials and members of the business community were brought together by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food (link in Spanish) (SAGARPA) to take part in an official trade mission to South America (link in Spanish) in search of new contacts and agreements that would enable Mexico to strengthen and expand its trade in agrifoods.

The delegates met with businesspeople, exporters, and ministers from Brazil and Argentina. Talks centered mainly around the possibility of these two countries exporting yellow maize, wheat, and soy to Mexico, which would help the latter diversify its supply of these inputs, which currently come mainly from the United States.

In Argentina (link in Spanish), the Mexican delegation took part in the forum on Business Opportunities in Connection with Supplying Mexico with Agrifood Products from Argentina, where they got to know more about Argentina’s logistics systems for trade facilitation. They also met with authorities from the local grain exchange.

Later, in Brazil (link in Portuguese), the delegation also held a business round at which Brazilian businesspeople were able to pitch their products and describe supply conditions in detail. The Mexican government has guaranteed that tariff and phytosanitary requirements will not be an obstacle to grain shipments.

The Mexican poultry industry uses some 10 million tons of corn and 3  tons of soy meal as animal fodder each year, said the president of the National Union of Poultry Farmers, César Quesada Macías. Mexico does not produce sufficient yellow corn to feed its poultry and depends on the ties it has established through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for its supply.