The president of the Mexican Poultry Union (UNA) Jorge García de la Cadena Romero, confirmed that the Mexican poultry industry will invest over US$230.5 million in order to modernize the sector and to strengthen its infrastructure and industrialization processes, according to Diario Portal.

These resources will give Mexico a modern poultry infrastructure in order to guarantee the production of safe food, not only for the internal market but also for export.

FIRA (Trust Funds for Rural Development) a second-tier development bank that offers credit and guarantees, to the agribusiness sector in Mexico, and UNA, signed a Collaboration Agreement, the purpose of which is to strengthen the investment in biosecurity infrastructure.

Based on this agreement, FIRA will implement financial mechanisms so that producers can invest in the infrastructure and thus improve their competitiveness.

The UNA president said that the agreement will directly support:

• Sustainability of poultry processes for environmental protection.
• Maintaining and increasing jobs in the poultry industry.
• Reducing the risks of transmitting poultry diseases.
• Improvement of lands through the production of biofertilisers.
• Increasing production of corn, sorghum and other grains.
• Eliminating the bad practices used in poultry litter disposal.
• Contributing to innovation and industrialisation of poultry wastes.

Mr de la Cadena pointed out that poultry producers are betting on the modernization of the processing plants and on value added products, looking toward export markets.

Industry Recovery

At the same time that the new investments were announced, the UNA president indicated that the production of chicken meat and eggs has recovered, in spite of the problems caused by H7N3 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Mr de la Cadena stated that due to that situation, Mexico had to cull nearly 26 million birds, reported El Economista.

Today the industry is less vulnerable than before because "before this, we did not have the vaccine, nor had we implemented the restrictions on poultry litter movement, like we have now".

“The diagnostic tools, vaccine and H7 experience are now available, so the disease can be identified immediately. The federal and state governments are monitoring farms and taking samples, looking for the virus that fortunately has not reappeared."

The president of UNA indicated that of every 10 kilos of animal protein that are consumed in Mexico, six of those are eggs, chicken or turkey.

By the end of 2013, Mexico expects to reach a production level of some three million tons of chicken, while egg production is estimated at two and a half million tons.