Variety meat exports provide critical returns for U.S. pork and beef producers, and Mexico is a leading destination for these products. The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is promoting pork and beef variety meat items to bars and casual restaurants in Mexico as an affordable appetizer and snack option that will appeal to their customers.
“They use a lot of different variety meats in the central part of Mexico, in the cantinas, in casual dining restaurants. We have an activity in the Fair of San Marcos. There are like 12 million people that go there in a period of three to four weeks to the fair. When we talk about variety meats in pork, we talk about pork jowl, ears, brains, snout, stomach, etc. In beef, we are promoting small intestine, also liver and sweetbread. For example, with the pork snout, we are doing tacos. We are doing sopes. We are doing tostadas. So it’s different cantina dishes with variety meat.”
Mexico is the leading volume destination for U.S. beef variety meat exports, totaling 124,000 metric tons last year. It is second only to China for pork variety meat exports, with shipments in 2024 topping 160,000 metric tons.
“Really good quality. The consistency is amazing. And, of course, it is very affordable for those cantinas because if you want to go to a cantina, maybe you can have, like, an appetizer that is going to be free if you are drinking or something, and it’s affordable, and that’s very important for us. Not all variety meat is affordable. I know that food breads are a little bit more expensive. It’s more interesting, or some parts, like snout, are very affordable, and you can have, like, a pork jowl taco or a pork jowl sope with guacamole for about, I don’t know, maybe $1. So it’s very affordable, and it’s very important for those kinds of restaurants and casual dining.”
The marketing campaign, known as Cantina Vibes, and other promotional efforts to support variety meat exports to Mexico are made possible through funding support from USDA, the National Pork Board, and the Beef Checkoff Program.