Steer meat

According to the sample, of the 37 steer slaughter centers that reported operations in 2000, in 2018 only 27 did so; while the number of steers slaughtered decreased by 10.6 %. In 2010, the four main slaughter centers slaughtered 41.0 % of the steers in Mexico (Municipal Slaughterhouse of Guadalajara 21.3 %, Naucalpan 7.3 %, La Paz 6.4 % and TIF 78 Frigorífico del Sureste 5.9 %; while, in 2018, four slaughter centers demanded 55.8 % (Slaughterhouse TIF 111 22.2 %, Municipal Slaughterhouse of Guadalajara 16.6 %, Sukarne slaughterhouse 10.5 % and Procarne slaughterhouse 6.5 %). The supply of steers occurred in 27 of the 32 states. Likewise, in the analysis period, the three main steer suppliers changed their position and importance; while in 2000, they were Jalisco (29.3 %), Nuevo León (11.5 %) and Chiapas (11.2 %); in 2018, they were Sinaloa (22.2 %), Nuevo León (18.6 %) and Jalisco (18.2 %).

Heifer meat

In 2000 there were 11 centers specialized in the slaughter of heifers, in 2018 the same number was counted, but not the same centers; some stopped providing information and others disappeared. In 2000, a single center slaughtered 74.0 % of heifer (TIF 111 Vizur Sin) and the states with the most important slaughter centers were Guanajuato 23.6 %, Chiapas 22.3 % and San Luis Potosí 12.0 %; in 2018, Sinaloa 74.1 %, Guanajuato 10.24 % and Michoacán 8.2 %. The supply of heifer was made by 19 states in 2000, the most important were Chiapas 21.9 %, Guanajuato 14.1 % and Jalisco 11.8 %; while in 2018, there were 14 states, Sinaloa 74.1 %, Michoacán 8.2 % and Jalisco 8.0 %.

Cow meat

The cow is mainly a cull product in Mexico in all production systems. Some states are characterized by a greater slaughter for having dairy basins, such is the case of Coahuila, Durango, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, Querétaro, Chihuahua and Hidalgo. In 2000, there were 34 supply centers specialized in cow slaughter and in 2018 they reduced by 32.3 %, the most important was M.S. Guadalajara that slaughtered 27.6 % of cows. In 2000, the most important states in cow slaughter were Jalisco 34.8 %, Guanajuato 7.88 % and Chiapas 7.5 %. In 2018, they were Jalisco 30.9 %, Sinaloa 28.2 % and Aguascalientes 12.2 %. The supply of cows in 2000 was meet with production from 25 states, the most important were Jalisco 36.9 %, Chiapas 7.4 % and Zacatecas 6.6 %; while, in 2018, the supply corresponded to 21 states and the main suppliers were Sinaloa with 28.2 %, Jalisco 27.4 % and Aguascalientes 11.3 %.

Bull meat

As in the case of cow meat, bull meat comes from cull animals. In 2000, there were 14 supply centers specialized in bull slaughter, the most important were P.S. León Servicios Integrales in Guanajuato (20.7 % of slaughtered bulls), TIF 78 Frigorífico del Sureste in Chiapas (19.9%), and M.S. of San Luis Potosí (10.5%). In 2018, there were the same number of slaughter centers, but some were new; now the main slaughter centers were TIF 111 Visur in Sinaloa with 46.5 % of bulls slaughtered, TIF Slaughterhouse in Sonora 11.7 % and Frigorífico y Empacadora de Aguascalientes 11.6 %. In 2000, the supply of bull was concentrated in 19 states; the most important were Chiapas 19.5 %, Sonora 12.47 % and Guanajuato 12.3 %. In 2018, only 14 supplied bull, the most important Sinaloa 46.5 %, Aguascalientes 16.1 % and Sonora 12.2 % of bulls offered.

Demand functions

All models for beef demand, by product, coincided with economic theory, except for bull, and were statistically significant in the coefficient of the price (P<0.05). For the four types of meat, the price explained 46.4 % of the number of heads of cattle slaughtered in slaughter centers, while, for all three products, just over 28 % (Table 1). Therefore, the estimated models are considered good (the law of demand holds, the price explains the variability of the quantity demanded, the P-value is <0.05, the coefficient of variation is low, and the standard error of estimate represented less than 21.2 % of the average number of heads of cattle demanded in the slaughter centers).

Price elasticity of demand

The price elasticity of demand for meat of live cattle in slaughter centers was 0.36 %; that is, inelastic and indicates that for every 1 % that the real price of beef changes in Mexico, the quantity demanded of cattle in the slaughter centers will change 0.36 %. The price elasticity of demand, by product, was also inelastic; thus, the price elasticity of demand for the steer was 0.33 % (0.33) for 1 % of real change in its price, for the steer 0.65, bull 0.39 and cow 0.60 % (Table 2).

In addition, Table 2 presents the estimated demand functions both by slaughter center and by each of the products in which the theory is verified, the estimated functions were statistically significant (P>0.05) at the predetermined confidence level.

Networks

In Figure 1, it can be seen that in the most important supply (n= 33) and slaughter (n= 25) centers in Mexico, the concentration of live beef cattle is in four slaughter centers, near the four centers of meat consumption (Mexico City, Jalisco, State of Mexico and Nuevo León); in addition, Aguascalientes has become a collection center for the supply centers of the north of the country. Overall, the market has an efficiency of 25.2 %, which means the set of possible relationships between production centers and slaughter centers. The variance (43.4 %) indicates that supply centers and slaughter centers receive the heads of cattle from different origin or that both seek the best price. The main slaughter center was Jalisco with 82.9 ± 38.6 % of the possible market relations, other important ones were State of Mexico 77.8 ± 42.9 %, Aguascalientes 63.7 ± 48.1 %, Guanajuato 51.5 ± 50.0 % and Nuevo León 45.6 ± 49.8 % of possible relationships. Likewise, the most important supply center was Aguascalientes, which was related to 84.0 ± 36.7 % of the slaughter centers, Jalisco 44.0 ± 49.7 % and Zacatecas 40.0 ± 49.1 % of the slaughter centers.

Blue color = slaughter centers and red color = supply centers.

Figure 1: Mexico, network of cattle supplies and slaughter centers 

The most important slaughter centers in steer slaughter are located in the State of Mexico, Jalisco and Aguascalientes; they receive steer from the highest proportion of states. The remotest states of the country meet their demand for steer with local production (Baja California Sur and Yucatan). The low relation (25.2 %) that the supply centers have with all the slaughter centers can be explained by the distance between supply centers and slaughter centers, in addition to the specialization in the type of animals slaughtered. In the case of Jalisco, which was related to more than 80 % of the supply centers or states, it can be explained by the geographical location, the installed capacity and the specialization in steer and cow (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Slaughter and supply centers for steer meat 

In the case of heifers, the relation of the slaughter and supply market reduces. The market of Baja California Sur is isolated from the domestic market. The average of all possible relationships was 19.4 ± 39.5 %, which means low network density and variability. The slaughter centers with the highest nodal degree or degree of influence were Aguascalientes and Guanajuato with 54.9 ± 50.1 %. Likewise, the supply centers with the greatest influence were Aguascalientes 66.7 ± 47.1 % of the supply centers, Zacatecas 38.9 ± 48.8 %, Jalisco and Yucatán 33.3 ± 47.1 %, respectively (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Slaughter and supply centers for heifer meat 

The market density for cow meat was 22.9 ± 42.0 %, meaning that approximately 23 % of the trades that could occur between suppliers and slaughter centers were achieved. The slaughter centers of Jalisco have market relations with 84.4 ± 36.3 % of the supply centers. Aguascalientes and Guanajuato are the other centers that have a commercial relationship with 53.1 ± 49.9 % of the supply centers. For supply centers, the states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Zacatecas had 80.0 ± 40.0, 44.0 ± 49.0 and 40.0 ± 49.1 % of their commercial relations (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Slaughter and supply centers for cull cows 

For the bull meat market, a density of 19.7 ± 39.8 % was found, the lowest of the four products analyzed. The slaughter centers of Aguascalientes and Guanajuato had exchanges of bull meat with 58.6 ± 49.3 % of the supply centers, others such as San Luis Potosí 31.0 ± 46.26 %, Durango and Nayarit 31.0 ± 46.3 %. The supply centers of Aguascalientes had exchanges with 72.2 ± 44.8 % of the slaughter centers, Jalisco and Zacatecas 38.9 ± 48.8 %, in addition to Guanajuato, Querétaro and Sonora with 27.8 ± 44.8 % of their relations with the supply centers (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Slaughter and supply centers for bull meat 

Price elasticity of demand

The slaughter centers with elastic price elasticity of demand were Guanajuato, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Jalisco, Durango, Coahuila and Sinaloa; while the rest behaved in an elastic way. One of the hypotheses of this behavior is the specialization they have in the meat products of the slaughtered animals (steer 74.1 %, heifer 90.0 %, cow 82.3 % and bull 60.2 %). The second is that, having such a low used capacity forces them to respond in an elastic manner to price changes to remain in the market; in this case, the slaughter centers with elastic price had a used capacity of 63.2 %, against 40.1 % of the inelastic ones.

Studies that discuss these results were almost nil; however, elastic price elasticities of demand for beef in Mexico were found¹⁹. However, this result is far from a study where a price elasticity of the demand for beef in Mexico was confirmed inelastic (-0.07) for the period 1990-2012²⁰ and close to that of Chile, focused on demand for beef cattle at the national level for a different period²¹. On the other hand, in an another study, an inverse response of the price of beef to the quantity demanded was found, confirming an inelastic effect²²; while in other related works, an elastic response (-1.41) of the price of beef to the quantity demanded was confirmed, for the case of Colombia²³, while for Mexico, regionally, inelastic price responses (between -0.15 and -0.53) to the quantity demanded of beef in carcass during the period 1996-2017⁵ were confirmed.

Capacity of slaughter centers

The number of cattle slaughter centers are distributed throughout Mexico, which is consistent with the dispersion of the supply centers or production units, as well as the livestock population, they are present in 30 of 32 states. However, TIF slaughter centers exist in 20 states, private ones in 13 and municipal ones in all states.

Currently, cattle slaughter centers have an inefficiency of 46 %, which means that they could slaughter 509,700 more heads. So, the question arises: How to make slaughter centers more efficient? In this regard, it has been verified that the farmer destines cattle for supply through three marketing channels: introducer (34.8 %), butcher (58.8 %) or on their own account (6.4 %)²⁴; while other studies concluded that they found that 73.0 % of cattle are sold directly to slaughterhouses and 26.0 % to intermediaries; which could explain why producers prefer to slaughter their cattle in slaughter centers far from the nearest center^25,26.

Prices in slaughter centers

The highest national average price in the slaughter centers was paid in San Luis Potosí (64.08 $/kg) for cattle from Michoacán; the lowest (15.66 $/kg) was in Nuevo León for cattle from San Luis Potosí. The slaughter centers of Jalisco (main national center) paid an average of 29.56 ± 2.90 $/kg, State of Mexico 34.27 ± 4.48 $/kg and Aguascalientes 23.93 ± 3.52 $/kg; however, the difference is not significant (P>0.05).

The average price for steer meat was 32.03 ± 5.59 $/kg, the maximum 58.22 $/kg in Sonora for cattle from Sinaloa and the lowest 22.20 in Baja California Sur for cattle from Baja California. The most important slaughter centers, due to their relationship with the supply centers, (San Luis Potosí) paid an average of 36.89 ± 7.33 $/kg, which is not statistically different from the national average price (P>0.05), nor from the second most important state slaughter center (State of Mexico).

The monitoring of the beef market in slaughter centers is carried out by the SNIIM. What can be observed is that the municipal slaughter centers maintained a decreasing trend in their monitoring from 2002 in 1.37 centers per year; in 2000 of the total number of centers monitored, TIF centers maintained an increasing trend until 2005, constant until 2010, but decreasing to date. Private centers, since 2005, have had increasing monitoring; in 2005, of the slaughter centers monitored, 17.58 % were private and in 2018 they represented 52.47 %.