Mexico displaced China in the last year as the main destination for US corn exports, official data showed.
Annual imports of corn from Mexico from the United States exceeded 5 billion dollars. In this context, companies and the US government are pressuring Mexico to withdraw the decree by which the country will stop importing transgenic corn, since practically all the grain produced in the US is genetically modified.
According to figures from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the fiscal year from October 2021 to September 2022 (latest figures available), Mexico’s grain imports from the US shot up 25 percent. to reach 5 thousand 121 million dollars, the highest figure since there are records, that is, 1970.
In this way, Mexico became the main market of the United States in terms of corn, displacing China, which ended the fiscal year with purchases of 4 thousand 809 million dollars.
According to information from the USDA, in the last 12 months, the United States sold to the world grain –mainly yellow and transgenic– for a value of 19 thousand 468 million dollars, of which 5 billion dollars correspond to Mexico, that is, more than one of every four dollars obtained from the sale of corn abroad is from our country.
Booming business and disputes
For producers, the business of selling corn to Mexico has skyrocketed in the last two years, since in 2020, the year the covid-19 pandemic began, the value of grain exports to our country stood at 2 thousand 242 million dollars, while now it adds 5 thousand 121 million, that is, an increase of 93 percent.
In the referred period, according to historical figures from Investing, the international price of corn doubled, reaching levels of up to 830 dollars per ton.
With the opening of markets in 2021, after the worst stage of the pandemic, the demand for grains increased, which increased the price of corn; However, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the most important boost came from the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two major global grain producers.
In a context in which Mexico represents a business of more than 5 billion dollars for US exporters of yellow corn, the government and companies pressure Mexico to withdraw a decree issued in 2020 with which, as of 2024, the imports of genetically modified grain, that is, transgenic.
Faced with Washington’s claims, the Mexican government has offered to postpone the entry of the decree for one year; however, last Monday the USDA and the Office of the Trade Representative, after a meeting with Mexican officials, exposed Serious Concerns Over Mexico’s Biotech Policies
which, they said, are not based on scientific research and will cause harm of billions of dollars
to agricultural trade.
Due to the above, the US representatives threatened to resort to a panel of controversy in the T-MEC, arguing that Mexico’s policies go against the trade measures agreed in the Mexico, United States and Canada Treaty.