USMEF to Mexican consumers: Eat pork at home 

The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMFE) is rolling out a new marketing strategy across parts of Mexico to encourage more people to eat pork at home. 

The initiative, made possible with support from USDA and National Pork Board, is geared toward the end consumer and will include multiple different campaign strategies from social media to retail stores. 

“We have great expectations for 2026 and 2027,” USMEF Regional Director for Mexico and Central America Gerardo Rodriguez said. 

While Mexico’s pork consumption has soared in recent years, its popularity has lagged in personal kitchens across the country, particularly in the north. USMEF found just 12 percent of the total amount of pork consumed in Mexico is cooked at home. 

“The percentage is lower than we thought,” Rodriguez said. 

Mexico imported nearly $3 billion of U.S. pork in 2025, with per-capita pork consumption exceeding 20 kilograms per year. But Rodriguez believes the low ratio of at-home preparation as an opportunity to expand the market further, if the U.S. industry can capitalize on consumers’ desire for convenience and help prepare dishes properly. 

“It’s a great opportunity for us to grow in this niche,” he said. 

In response, USMEF’s team in Mexico will devote resources to focus on promoting at-home pork consumption during the next two years. Rodriguez believes it is the next step in growing overall demand for U.S. pork in Mexico. “If we grow the percentage of pork being cooked at home, I think that it’s going to move the needle in a tremendous way,” he said. 

The first step in bolstering sales is figuring out why families are leaving pork off their shopping lists. According to Rodriguez, shoppers are skipping the pork aisle at grocery stores in favor of other proteins that are perceived as easier to work with at home. 

“Price is not an issue. Availability is not an issue. The issue is education,” Rodriguez said. “The issue is they need to learn how to cook it correctly so we want to do a joint venture with kitchen appliance companies, and we can demonstrate to the consumer that cooking pork at home is very easy, very convenient and very versatile.” 

USMEF has already seen success using food trucks to increase demand for U.S. pork products in the foodservice sector in Mexico by teaching chefs how to best utilize the meat in new and different ways, with a focus on grilling. 

Rodriguez and his team will employ a similar strategy to encourage consumers to incorporate more pork and different cuts into their diets at home. 

“What we are going to be doing now is to adapt those food trucks, and we are going to demonstrate how to cook pork with an Instant Pot or with a pan fryer,” Rodriguez said. “We’re going to be using the Thermomix and all of the common kitchen appliances. So, this is going to be giving us the opportunity to have the same key audience but to know that the same cut can be cooked in different ways.” 

Aside from appliance partnerships, USMEF is also working with companies like SuKarne to develop quick, affordable and easy-to-cook dishes. One such product is a package of shredded pork that can star in a variety of familiar meals like tacos, sliders, mole and more. 

Through the support of partners like the Indiana Soybean Alliance, USMEF works to move Indiana soybeans through pork exports around the globe. In 2025, pork exports accounted for consumption of nearly 7.5 million bushels of Indiana soybeans valued at $76.1 million. 

According to a study recently completed by the Juday Group, the total impact of exports to the Indiana soybean industry in 2025 was more than $339 million.