Exporting to Mexico is an overnight success, 20 years in the making
Trade with Mexico required a wide range of development activities, including retail and foodservice promotions, regulatory clarifications and trade policy advocacy.
A week or so before Thanksgiving 2011, Mexico became our first billion-dollar overseas market. It was like watching our first-born go through a graduation ceremony — the satisfying reward after years of careful nurturing.
The baby steps seem like yesterday, first when the U.S. Dairy Export Council was formed by dairy farmer and processor leaders who foresaw that, with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, dairy was indeed going to be a global market someday. And then by countless trips to Mexico City in the 1990s, opening the first USDEC overseas office and getting to know the local trade.