South of the Border
by Jerome Rosa, Associate Director Arizona Department of Agriculture
O
n November 8, 2021 Dr. Ryan Wolker, Inspector Luis Romero and I took a trip down to Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, Mexico. The purpose of this trip was three fold:
1. Tour the USDA certified meat processing facilities 2. Develop relationships with our Mexican government counterparts 3. Discuss future business opportunities Our first stop on the trip was at the Secretaria de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural/ Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), which is the Sonoran equivalent to the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA). The federal division in Mexico is Servicio Nacional de Sanidiad Inocuidad, y Calidad Agroalimentaria/ National Service of Health, Safety, and Food
Quality (SENASICA) which is equivalent to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). At the offices of SADERS we met with both the Secretary of Agriculture, Fatima Yolanda Rodriguez Mendoza, who holds the equivalent position of Director Mark Killian and the Undersecretary of Livestock, Jorge Luis Fimbres Castillo; my counterpart at the Animal Services Division. After our visit at SADERS we proceeded to PEGSON which is a USDA certified slaughter facility located in an industrial park area in Hermosillo. This modern (14 years old) facility was very impressive. After a lengthy tour we learned that not only was this plant processing cattle from Arizona feedlots, but the meat was being imported back into Arizona giving Arizona producers a competitive edge in processing costs. Furthermore, meat was also being exported to Japan which has very stringent meat processing requirements; in fact, some of the strictest in the world. This alone attests to the standards of hygiene and testing that this plant has undergone in order to be approved to export to these markets. Cur-
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rently, the plant is processing 250 head per day with plans to soon increase to 450 head per day. Our next stop just up the road in the same industrial park area was the JC Meat Cutting Facility. Cattle are halved and frozen at PEGSON and then after a desired hanging period the carcasses are trucked to JC for further processing. Cuts and packaging are custom done according to customer specifications. Often products are cut into primal cuts and shipped to wholesalers in the U.S where they can be further processed for their specific needs. Our final stop of the day was at UNION GANADERA REGIONAL DE SONORA (UGRS). This is the Sonoran Cattlemen’s Union. The Union is very influential in many phases of the beef industry some of which includes feed, supplies, identification and sales. Over the past 30 years, UGRS has worked extremely hard with SADER and SENASICA having achieved a comparable Tuberculosis Free status as many US States. In summary with favorable exchange rates and the low cost of labor we are seeing meat processing being done in Hermosillo at approximately 20 percent of the cost to get it done in the US. Currently over 82 percent of the meat processed in the United States is done by four large packing companies. There is a critical shortage of small to medium sized meat processers in the US and alternative avenues to process beef at a competitive advantage to producers is needed. This story is meant to be for informational purposes only.
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