The story
Part of our guide to food and beverage freight between Mexico and the U.S.
Pork, dairy, poultry and beef move both ways across the border in reefers, and the larger flow runs south. Southbound freight needs a USDA export certificate and Mexican import paperwork before loading. Northbound meat is reinspected lot by lot by FSIS after customs. Pooled reefer bids are up 23% northbound and 27% southbound in a year.
Where protein and dairy reefer freight ships from
Most teams picture this freight coming north. The trade data says otherwise, and it says the southbound run is worth getting right. In 2025 the U.S. exported to Mexico about $2.85 billion of pork, $2.57 billion of dairy, $1.55 billion of poultry meat and $1.3 billion of beef, per USDA FAS.
The U.S. also supplies roughly 75% to 80% of Mexico's dairy imports. Northbound, beef is the main item. USDA estimates Mexican beef exports at 400,000 metric tons in 2026, up 23%, and pork exports up 7%. Only plants certified under Mexico's TIF program can ship meat north; they are about 10% of slaughterhouses but half of cattle slaughter.
Source: USDA FAS, U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico, calendar 2025; USDA FAS GAIN reports MX2026-0040 (8/24/2026), MX2025-0035 (8/27/2025) and MX2026-0027, retrieved October 10, 2026.
In Cargado, southbound protein and dairy shipments post out of the El Paso, Laredo and McAllen border areas and out of Southern and Central California, headed to Monterrey, Ciudad Juárez and the Mexico City area.
Northbound, Monterrey and Irapuato are among the Mexico markets where protein and dairy freight posts, running to Texas, Los Angeles, the Midwest and Atlanta. About two-thirds of the frozen, dairy and meat freight we see posts as reefer.
What adds cost and time on a protein or dairy reefer
Every lot of meat is reinspected after customs
After CBP and APHIS release a northbound meat shipment at the port, it goes to one of roughly 160 official import inspection establishments, where FSIS checks the certificate and the label on every lot.
FSIS can also assign a product exam, a container check, or a residue or microbial test, and product with a lab sample pending is held until the result. From 2020 through 2022, about 3.9% of Mexican meat pounds and 10.9% of poultry pounds drew one of those extra inspections, calculated from FSIS's fiscal 2023 audit of Mexico.
The shipment has a named destination establishment; a trailer that drops at the wrong dock is a "failure to present" violation, and FSIS can ask CBP for redelivery and penalties. Refused product is stamped "U.S. Refused Entry," and the owner has 45 days to export it, destroy it or convert it to animal food where eligible.
Mexico cannot export poultry from birds slaughtered in Mexico. Poultry from Mexico must come from birds slaughtered in the U.S. or in another country eligible to ship slaughtered poultry to the U.S.
The cost is the trailer running while it waits: a diesel reefer unit burns about 0.8 gallons an hour, per CARB, and the driver's clock keeps moving.
The temperature duties under the FSMA transport rule
The FSMA Sanitary Transportation rule puts the written duties on the party that arranges the move, which the rule calls the "shipper." For food that needs temperature control for safety, that party gives the carrier a written operating temperature, including any pre-cool phase, or sets written procedures instead. The loader confirms the compartment is pre-cooled, if necessary, before product goes in.
When a written agreement makes the carrier responsible, the carrier must pre-cool as specified and be able to show that temperatures were maintained if asked.
As of October 2026, 21 CFR 1.908 sets no standalone temperature-log mandate; the hook is the duty to demonstrate, by any means the carrier and the arranging party agree on, such as loading and unloading temperatures or in-transit data.
Food that may have had a material temperature failure cannot be sold unless a qualified individual decides it is not unsafe, so a dispute over the set point is a dispute over the whole load.
Prior notice for the FDA side of the trailer
Dairy and frozen foods under FDA jurisdiction need prior notice confirmed no less than two hours before the truck reaches the port. Late or inaccurate notice can mean refusal and a hold at the port. Meat and poultry run through FSIS instead, so a mixed load has both clocks.
Southbound paperwork before loading
Since November 4, 2024, FSIS export certificates for meat and poultry to Mexico are generated in PHIS and digitally signed, and a printed, watermarked copy must travel with the shipment. U.S. dairy for Mexico moves on a USDA APHIS export certificate instead.
On the Mexican side, SENASICA sets import requirements for animal products through zoosanitary requirement sheets, and dairy needs a COFEPRIS import permit that the Mexican importer applies for in advance. Meat and poultry plants exporting to Mexico must be USDA-approved. Without the permit in the importer's hand, the freight does not cross.
Source, in order of the items above: FSIS import reinspection page; FSIS Mexico audit report, fiscal 2023 (pounds for 2020 to 2022; percentages calculated); FSIS Import Inspection Student Notebook; FSIS Directive 9900.1; FSIS Directive 9900.6; 9 CFR 327.13 and 381.202; FSIS eligible foreign establishments page (8/31/2026); CARB TRU Technical Assessment Report (2020); 21 CFR part 1, subpart O (1.908, 1.912); FDA Sanitary Transportation rule page; 21 CFR 1.277, 1.279 and 1.283; FSIS Mexico export library page (updated 8/12/2026); APHIS, Export Animal Products to Mexico (last modified 8/25/2026; dairy certificate VS Form 16-4); USDA FAS GAIN FAIRS Export Certificate Report MX2025-0051 and Country Report Annual MX2025-0049. Retrieved 10/10/2026 and 10/11/2026.
As of October 2026
Everything in this box decays. Check the date before relying on it.
- Live cattle ports. USDA suspended live-cattle imports from Mexico in May 2025 over New World screwworm. USDA reopened Douglas, Arizona to cattle on August 24, 2026 under its phased plan; check APHIS's screwworm page for current port status. This is a live-animal measure. FSIS eligibility for Mexican beef is unchanged.
- Section 301 tariff. Since July 24, 2026, goods of Mexico pay an additional 10% duty under Section 301 unless entered duty-free under USMCA. Beef lines in headings 0201 and 0202 are on the U.S. note 52(b) exempt list; no pork (0203), poultry (0207) or chapter 4 dairy line was found on it as of 10/11/2026. Confirm the treatment of your meat and dairy lines with your customs broker. The 10% is under challenge at the U.S. Court of International Trade, which heard arguments on 9/30/2026 and had not ruled as of 10/11/2026. It is still collected.
- USMCA review. The U.S. did not agree to renew USMCA at the July 1, 2026 joint review. The agreement remains in force with annual reviews; comments for the 2027 review are due 1/12/2027.
- Food traceability. Soft and semi-soft cheeses are on FDA's Food Traceability List; meat and poultry are not. FDA has proposed moving the FSMA 204 compliance date to July 20, 2028 and Congress directed FDA not to enforce before then; the rule setting the new date is not final.
- Mexican customs law. A decree published in the DOF on November 19, 2025, with most provisions in force from January 1, 2026, makes customs agents responsible for the accuracy of classification and for confirming the importer holds proof of compliance with non-tariff rules.
- Mexico's pork investigation. Mexico opened antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on U.S. pork legs and shoulders (0203.12.01, 0203.19.99, 0203.22.01, 0203.29.99) on 12/15/2025. No preliminary resolution or duty had been published as of 10/11/2026; the initiation notice says a final duty could reach goods entered up to 90 days before any provisional measure.
- Chicken leg quarters. Mexico keeps a 25.7% antidumping duty on U.S. chicken leg quarters on the books but has not applied it since a 6/27/2025 review, as reported by IDC Online.
Source, in order of the items above: USDA press release on the phased reopening of southern ports to livestock trade (7/24/2026); AP and Reuters reports of cattle crossing at Douglas (8/24/2026); APHIS New World screwworm page; Federal Register 2026-15181 (91 FR 47318); HTSUS Rev. 21 chapter 99, U.S. note 52(b), text searched 10/11/2026; In re Section 301 Forced Labor Cases, Consol. Ct. No. 26-03555 (CIT; docket checked 10/11/2026); USTR statement on the USMCA joint review (July 2026); 91 FR 63379; FDA Food Traceability List (current as of 7/24/2026); FDA Food Traceability Rule page; DOF decree amending the Ley Aduanera (11/19/2025), transitory article one and Art. 54, with the Galicia Abogados summary as a second source; Secretaría de Economía, initiation of AD and CVD investigations on U.S. pork legs and shoulders, expedientes AD 12-25 and AS 18-25 (DOF 12/15/2025); IDC Online, 6/30/2025, on the chicken leg quarter review (DOF 6/27/2025). Retrieved 10/10/2026 and 10/11/2026.
General information as of 10/11/2026, not legal, tax or customs advice. Confirm classification and duty with a licensed customs broker.
How reefer bids are moving in both directions
Pooled northbound reefer bids out of Mexico are up 23% against September 2025 and were flat in September against August. Pooled southbound reefer bids from all U.S. origins into Mexico are up 27% over the same year and rose 6.7% on the month.
These are market-level figures: the median of carrier bids on all reefer freight in each direction, not only protein and dairy, on trips over 500 miles. They are pooled because no single Mexico market had enough reefer bidding in September to publish alone.
| Series | Change vs September 2025 | Change vs August 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Northbound reefer, all Mexico origins into the U.S. | +23% | flat |
| Southbound reefer, all U.S. origins into Mexico | +27% | +6.7% |
Source: Median carrier bid per mile, reefer, trips over 500 miles, USD, September 2026 against September 2025 and August 2026. Northbound: all Mexico origins into the U.S. Southbound: all U.S. origins into Mexico. Cargado carrier bid data.
The public record points the same way. USDA AMS put second-quarter 2026 produce reefer rates for 501 to 1,500 mile hauls up 38% from a year earlier across Arizona crossings and up 55% across Texas crossings, with diesel up 52% and 55%. Those are USDA's figures for produce lanes, which share trailers and drivers with yours.
Source: USDA AMS, Mexico Transport Cost Indicator Report, second quarter 2026, retrieved October 10, 2026.
Each direction is its own market. Pooled northbound reefer bids per mile ran above southbound in September, so a pork exporter and a beef importer are in different markets on the same bridge. The nine-city-pair direction gap is worked through in the automotive article: /insights/automotive-parts-mexico-us.
Your reefer shares the road with produce. Protein and dairy have no harvest, but the trailers do. USDA AMS puts 59% of Mexico's reefer produce tonnage in the first half of the year, and pooled northbound bids out of Mexico have risen since March. A protein lane that reprices in the spring is riding the produce season.
Source: USDA AMS quarterly refrigerated truck volumes, 2025 quarterly shares 29/29/19/22; Cargado carrier bid data, pooled northbound, trips over 500 miles, October 2025 to September 2026.
What we see benchmarking reefer freight
We run rate benchmarks with companies that ship across the border. These are patterns from that work, shared without names or rates.
- Reefer needs its own benchmark. In one consumer goods network, the dry van market range did not describe the reefer and frozen lanes, so we left them out of the comparison instead of forcing a fit. That is why this page uses pooled reefer rates until single markets build enough history.
Source: Cargado rate benchmarking engagements, anonymized. Market movements cited are Cargado carrier bid data.
What to check on your own reefer lanes
- Which import inspection establishment is named on each northbound meat shipment, how far it sits from the crossing, and who pays for the trailer's time there. We found no public benchmark for that dwell, so it has to be in your contract.
- Who holds the FSMA "shipper" role on each lane, whether the written operating temperature and pre-cool instruction are on the bill of lading or in the carrier agreement, and whether the carrier can produce a temperature download on request.
- On southbound lanes, whether the printed USDA certificate (FSIS for meat, APHIS for dairy), the SENASICA requirement sheet and, for dairy, the COFEPRIS permit are in the importer's hand before loading. The permit is the importer's to obtain; the delay is yours.
- That your northbound and southbound benchmarks are separate. A southbound pork lane priced against a northbound beef lane reads wrong either way.
- That fuel is on the same basis as the benchmark. Cargado rates are all-in carrier bids, fuel included, so a linehaul rate plus a tractor fuel schedule understates a reefer move. See How to read a Mexico fuel surcharge.
Monthly lane watch
Median carrier bids, September 2026. We update this block each month.
| Market | Direction and equipment | vs September 2025 | vs August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pooled northbound reefer (all Mexico origins) | Northbound reefer | +23% | -0.2% |
| Pooled southbound reefer (all U.S. origins into Mexico) | Southbound reefer | +27% | +6.7% |
Source: Cargado carrier bid data.
Price your reefer lanes in both directions
Related links
- Food and beverage freight to Mexico and Canada, the hub
- Market Rates for your Mexico and Canada freight
- How rate confidence scores work
- How to read a Mexico fuel surcharge
- Fresh produce from Mexico by reefer
- Packaged food and beverages between Mexico and the U.S.
- Shipping automotive parts between Mexico and the U.S.
