Mexico Suspends Purchases from 30 Meat Plants

NEW YORK — Mexico suspended meat imports from 30 processing plants in 14 states, including some of the nation's largest, on Wednesday and Friday, according to a list posted on the U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site.

The action pushed down beef and pork futures in trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Friday.

Among the plants listed on the site are the Smithfield Packing Inc., plant in Tar Heel, N.C., the world's largest pork slaughterhouse.

Another Smithfield plant in Plant City, Fla., that processes pork, beef and poultry is on the list, along with three plants operated by subsidiary John Morrell & Co., two in South Dakota and one in Iowa, a Nebraska pork run by subsidiary Farmland Foods Inc. and a Pennsylvania beef plant run by its Moyer Packing Co. unit.

Six operations run by Tyson Foods Inc. in Iowa, Texas and Nebraska are also on the list.

Other affected plants are run by food giants Cargill Inc. and Swift Foods Inc., along with Seaboard Corp. and 11 small private companies in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah.

USDA spokeswoman Amanda Eamich said in an e-mail that Mexico had discussions over the course of the last five business days with the agency regarding concerns about the general condition of meat products, sanitation issues and "possible pathogen findings."

"Occasional differences in shipments in trade relationships do occur and allow for the option of notifying specific plants of suspension of those shipments," she said.

Published reports, however, raised the possibility the move could reflect Mexico's objection to a recently-enacted law that requires meat products to bear country-of-origin labels.

Source: The Associated Press