15 minutes with ... Javier Usabiaga: agriculture secretary evaluates battery of threats, chances of Mexican farmer prospering in new global market.

Javier Usabiaga speaks the language of the land. Forty-two years as a farmer and living in the countryside for most of his life uniquely qualified him to be appointed agriculture secretary by President Fox.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The challenges facing the "Garlic King" (so dubbed from his years in the private sector, in which he amassed a horticulture fortune) are many--the threat of mad cow disease spreading from the United States to Mexico, the ongoing sugar wars with Nafta partners and growing discontent in the countryside that the government does not do enough to protect the Mexican farmer.

During a tour of rural areas in late February, Usabiaga--riding in a helicopter and strolling through farmers' fields with his aides--addressed these concerns in an interview with BUSINESS MEXICO, discussing measures in place to protect Mexican cattle from foreign disease, his expectation that Mexican sugar will have greater access to the U.S. market and his hope that the nation's farmers will be blessed with money-making opportunities in the short term.

With U.S. beef being stopped at the border, when do you expect bilateral trade in this billion-dollar industry to resume?

Well, that all depends on U.S. authorities. I have said the Mexican government is very pleased with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman's announcement. The implementation of what she said (new measures to combat mad cow disease and resume regional beef trade) is what we are hoping will take place.

So how long do you think it will be before beef trade is fully resumed?

Canada has implemented a safety certificate (to ensure beef imported into Mexico is disease free), and we, as a government, trust U.S. authorities as much as we do the Canadians. We are asking U.S. industry to invite Mexican industry representatives to certify that everything listed on the certificate is what is being done in the factories.

What sort of criteria will be needed? Clearly, safety is the most important thing.

In this particular case, the criteria we've been using in North America is disregarding all the animals that don't come into the food chain. A second criteria is slaughtering, for export purposes, only animals under 30 months of age (because improved slaughtering practices went into effect only several years ago). And thirdly, an identification program that has already started in Canada and Mexico, and will be implemented in the United States, so we can trace beef on the market. My idea on this particular program is that when I go to a restaurant and ask for a steak. I want to be able to know what color the steer was, when it was born, at what age it was slaughtered and where it moved during its life.

Obviously, if this embargo on U.S. beef continues for much longer, and everybody hopes it doesn't, it could cost thousands of U.S. jobs.

I think the problem the U.S. had is a single case. It's not an outbreak nor a health problem in all U.S. herds. It's an isolated case, and that should give certainty to the consumer. On the other hand, the measures that we have implemented in North America as a whole will show enough recognition of the disease for it to be handled. I feel very confident that any animal less than 30 months of age will never be contaminated. If on top of that we eliminate all the risk material (brain and spine tissue), I think the consumer will be very pleased with the measures we have taken, and our industry feels very satisfied with that.

We also have issues that we have to resolve like the three countries' live cattle market. We have 7.2 million animals that were moved between Canada, the United States and Mexico last year. That is an issue we have to solve. We are creating a multi-disciplinary group to decide what we can do in order to avoid this disease from propagating in our countries. We've got a great experience.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

We are the only continent in the world that has stayed free of foot-and-mouth disease for the past 40 years. That is because we have been working very closely with a group of technicians that don't respond to the needs of any country in particular, but to the needs and the safety of the territory as a whole.

What impact on national and international markets will mad cow disease, bird flu and "mad chicken" illness in Asia have? What do you think the short-, medium- and long-term effect will be?

I think that goes back to something that the market has been demanding for the last few years, and that is "traceability." That's the name of the game, so we can know exactly what has happened, where it has come from and what was the cause of any problem that we might have in the near future.

I think the impact on the beef market is that the consumer will benefit a great deal in terms of the quality of meat. It will be younger meat, it will be slaughtered with excellent methods and it will remove all risk material immediately.

Concerning chickens, Mexico feels very confident that our program is very good. We have a very strict control of the mobilization of birds and live animals in our country, and we have a vaccination program that has been in place, and the creation of disease-free areas in every state and every region of our country. But the most important thing we have is the control of mobilization. We know from where it (chicken) is coming and where it is going. That gives us the certainty that we can avoid a problem like that.

On a different subject, can agreement be reached with Japan, in reducing duties on orange juice, oranges, pork, chicken and cattle products, to achieve a free trade agreement? What is the key to getting a free trade agreement with Japan?

I think that there is not just one key, but several needed to open this free trade agreement. Of course our main interest as a country is agricultural products. We do understand and realize the protection that Japan has had in its agricultural sector is going to create some problems. But we feel very optimistic that we will be able to achieve a good deal for both countries.

We are very close to achieving an agreement on products. We demand a little bit more volume, which should not affect the Japanese economy at all. We demand a little bit more openness for some specific products like oranges and orange juice. And we demand some changes in the methodology of the so-called gate prices still practiced in Japan.

What do you think the effect on Mexican agricultural producers will be concerning the U.S. bio-terrorism law? Obviously there is going to be a ripple effect.

I don't see it as a problem. I see it as an opportunity. The Mexican government and Mexican producers are taking the subject of food safety very seriously. Food safety is a big issue for Mexican growers, and producers as a whole, and traceability is something that has been in place for a few years with some Mexican producers.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Our goal is to open areas, states and crops so that the U.S. government can have the certainty of safety measures the Mexican government and producers are implementing in order to satisfy the demands and the needs of the U.S. market. The law is already in place and it is my impression that most exporters are complying with everything that is in the law today.

What solution do you see or consider about tariff barriers concerning the importation of fructose coming from the Untied States?

That's a very tough issue. I think that the sweetener market in North America requires a different structure. Nafta created mandates to share the markets. I think no country has the right to reserve part of the market for itself. It's a very complicated market because there are industries that have been protected for many, many years. And protected in certain ways that they contaminate the market. I think we need to sit down with Mexican and U.S. industry and decide what lies in the future.

The future is only five years away. By 2008, North America will have one single market and we cannot believe that the sweetener market will have its own space or own satellite market. That is something that we have to approach and reconcile and decide what we are going to do.

My personal view is that the sweetener market should be integrated. Mexican sugar should have access to the U.S. market, and fructose should have access to the Mexican market.

How can Mexican agriculture become more mechanized, automated, more efficient, similar to the systems in the United States and Canada? There is potential but how can it be realized?

I think the problem is in the structure that we have. I don't think that we have to look north to see the big agriculture companies that they have in the United States or in Canada. We have to look to the rest of the world. How can a small farmer be competitive and how can a small farmer have access to the market? The biggest issue and problem that we have in Mexico is market access. We understand that financial systems can be applied to give farmers greater resources at the time of harvest.

In addition, methods of conserving crops and obtaining increased market access could shorten the chain between the farmer and the consumer. Those are the issues that we really have to work on. And that is what we have been trying to do since the beginning of this administration. President Fox has said this is the new language in the Mexican agricultural sector. We not only have to look at productivity, we also have to look at logistics and we have to look at the market.

When you go around the country, what do farmers and ranchers ask you? And what would you do if you were in their shoes instead of being secretary of agriculture?

Well I'm lucky, because at home I've got three farmers. My three sons are farmers, so every Sunday at lunch, I have a claims session with them (laughs). I think what we are doing is what I would expect that any government would do for me. I understand that our rural society is so big that it's sometimes impossible to get to every person. But most people have been receiving a response.

We now have low costs with our energy. We now have access to a little bit better financial products and rates. We have to work very hard on that and implement those programs, especially on financing. We are promoting Mexican products throughout the world with great success. The exportation of agricultural products has been growing since 2001, at a rate of 7% per year.

We hope that this year our growth in agricultural exports will surpass last year's figures by 20%. So, we are opening the market, we are creating an identity for Mexican products among Mexican consumers, which is very important. In the past we lost part of that. And we have a big problem to solve, which is technological improvements and capitalization of farming activities and agronomic systems with our small farmers, in order to increase productivity, increase production and reduce costs.

What is your main goal as agriculture secretary?

To make it possible that every farmer in Mexico earns good money. That is my goal. If I don't achieve that, I won't be satisfied. I think our objective is to make sure that every farmer can make money on his product. In order to do that, we have to promote markets, to reinforce markets, to get market access, to get financing systems, to increase productivity.

Do you think it helps that you are a farmer and President Fox is a farmer in that you can speak their language? You can get your hands dirty, and you know what it's like to be on a farm.

It helps because I think that life gave us the possibility of knowing not only our sector, which was horticulture, or the cattle sector that we dealt with in the past. But it gives us the opportunity to know almost every part of our country that has farming activity. And most importantly, we know how farmers, ranchers and campesinos think, because we lived with them when we were young. We were raised together. We not only talk the same language, we understand their needs and we have seen their frustration.

James Blears is a Mexico City-based freelance writer and a correspondent for Standard Radio News in Mexico.

Photos by Marco Ugarte