Market structure for live pigs in Mexico

The behavior of producers and consumers of live pigs determines the first link in the value chain of the pig production system. The objective was to analyze the commercial relationship of live pigs between supply centers and pig slaughterhouses in Mexico, using the theory of social network analysis. The data analyzed corresponded to the five-year period from 2000 to 2019. The number of commercial relationships in the network remained constant in the period; however, fragmentation increased 69.2%; while the average degree of fragmentation decreased 33.7%, connectivity 23.4%, internal centrality 40.0% and external centrality 10.0%; therefore, the network showed an average density of 2.7±2.1% and decreased 23.9% in the period, while the degree of centralization increased 65.6%. The social capital decreased 52.4%, which implied less trust, cooperation and reciprocity of market and production information. The commercialization network of live pigs between slaughter and supply centers showed a low degree of density or linkage, which makes it highly vulnerable in terms of market information and a greater dependence of the pig slaughter centers on local supply centers.