Wichita ? Mexico’s reopening of its borders last week to some U.S. beef products is good news, but it will not restore jobs lost at American beef processing plants, officials with Excel Corp. said Wednesday.

While the limited exports to Mexico are “definitely good news,” the company was already processing those cattle and packaging the beef, said Mark Klein, spokesman for Wichita-based Excel.

Excel announced in January it planned to cut 700 jobs at its beef processing plants across the country. The company ultimately cut 600 jobs, Klein said, with about 300 of those workers later rehired to fill other vacancies.

The layoffs were in jobs related to processing of variety meats, such as tongue and liver, that are still banned from export to Mexico, he said.

Mexico partially lifted its ban on imports of U.S. beef last week, allowing boneless cuts from animals less than 30 months old and veal from animals less than 9 months old into the country.

“This is very good news. This is some of the better news the industry has had for a while,” Klein said. “Mexico is an important market for U.S. beef. … Hopefully, this will lead to additional good news of opening the border to other products.”

The Mexican government had imposed a ban on Dec. 24, the day after a single case of mad-cow disease was reported in Washington state.

Mexico is traditionally the second-largest foreign market for U.S. beef. The United States exported 346,520 tons of beef to Mexico from January through November last year, worth $818 million, according to USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.