Mexico has resumed imports of breeding cattle from the United States and Canada, bringing back a $125 million industry that stalled because of fears of mad cow disease.

Officials with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association say Mexico, which imports the most U.S. beef, denied access to U.S. breeding cattle in 2003, when the United States announced its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Since then, Mexico has only allowed imports of dairy cows under 24 months old.

“It's not as big a deal by any means. We ship our beef products or pork products over there, but any time we have an outlet and the Mexican people are real interested in our breeding stock, so basically opens up another avenue we were trading before and got shut down when BSE hit. So it's another market opening up for us, always grateful for that,” said Larry Smith, Nebraska Cattleman president.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture say the beef market in Mexico is expected to surge in the next decade, with a 91 percent increase in imports in the next 10 years.

“They produce a different product than us. Their cattle has very little fat -- like our standard or select, which is stuff used in fajitas and tortillas is more like a BBQ meat for us,” Smith said. “It certainly gives us a chance to grow our markets. Those people come on and develop taste for different style meat. Now, you don't see steak and roast. It’s all in form of pulled beef or pork.”