MEXICO CITY and WASHINGTON—Mexico took steps to resume imports of U.S. meat from 21 of 30 plants that had been sanctioned for technical and sanitary issues, a source at the country's agriculture ministry said.
Mexico suspended shipments from the beef, pork, lamb and poultry plants Dec. 23 over sanitary conditions involving packaging, labeling and transportation in what U.S. industry officials said was an unusually large delisting of their plants. Many of the banned plants are owned by the largest U.S. meat companies, including Cargill, Inc., Tyson Foods, Inc., JBS, Seaboard Foods and Smithfield Foods.
The U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) reported that corrective action had been taken at 21 of the plants, a Mexican official told Reuters, noting that bans on imports from the plants will be removed.
The Mexican government was still awaiting word from FSIS on what remedies were being made at the remaining nine plants, the official said.
Mexico is the largest export market by volume for U.S. beef, veal and turkey, the second largest for pork and the third largest for chicken, according to U.S. government statistics.
