Corn production in Mexico was reduced between 40 and 50 percent during 2023, warned leaders of the agricultural sector, who warned of a greater dependence on grain imports, due to the drought, the lack of support for the field and corn prices. Fair guarantees, in addition to the cost of inputs, force producers to stop planting or change their crops to more attractive products, such as berries or avocados.
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The situation in the countryside contrasts with the promises of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who since his 2018 campaign and already in government promised that Mexico would stop importing food and achieve food self-sufficiency.
“The best thing is to produce in Mexico what we consume, food and energy, that is the lesson. So we have to go towards food self-sufficiency so as not to depend on foreigners for our raw materials,” said López Obrador on May 14, 2022 during the start of the production campaign for self-consumption in Puebla.
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“The situation is critical. Imports will reach 40 billion dollars… Almost everything we import. “56 percent of what is on the table is imported,” said the president of the Mexican Union of Agrochemical Manufacturers and Formulators (UNFFAAC), Luis Eduardo González Cepeda, who accused that the collapse in corn production was 50 percent. percent and, therefore, corn imports will rise from 20 million tons last year to 24 million tons by 2024.
The general secretary of the National Union of Agricultural Workers (UNTA), Álvaro López Ríos, pointed out that the drop in corn production was 40 percent, both in seasonal planting – which depends on the rains – and in irrigation.
“We are on the path to displacing China as the largest corn importing country,” said González Cepeda, who estimated the value of corn imports at close to $40 billion.
In addition to the drought, which during 2023 affected 70 percent of the national territory, other factors influenced the decrease in the planting of corn and other basic food products, such as beans, wheat and sorghum, such as the increase in prices of fuel, fertilizers and low or no guarantee prices.
“Guarantee prices for corn go down, but not the prices of fuel, transportation, inputs and fertilizers, agrochemicals do not go down. The farmer has nowhere to get more funds to get ahead,” said González Cepeda.
He explained that for corn planting to be a profitable business, a farmer must obtain 11 tons of grain per hectare, otherwise, his profit is minimal or it will not be enough to pay his production costs.
“In Sinaloa, for the farmer to do well, he has to grow 11 tons of corn per hectare. If he gets 10 tons, he doesn’t do so well. But if it is eight tons per hectare, he no longer calculates the investment cost per hectare. The ton is paid for 4,500 pesos and if it achieved eight tons per hectare it is 36 thousand pesos, but its production cost was 32 thousand pesos. So, it’s working a whole year for four thousand pesos. It’s not business,” he said.
In addition to these costs, he said, freight and transportation charges are added to take the corn to the commercial areas of the country, hence the importance of guaranteed prices that assure the producer against possible losses, “but by removing the prices of guarantee by the current government, farmers stopped planting corn because there is no security.”
Faced with this situation, the leader of the UNTA, Álvaro López Ríos, accused that there is a silent process of reconversion from the sowing of grains to the production of berries – strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc. – and avocado, which, being export products, They give good returns.
“But citizens do not eat berry tortillas; Avocados are business, but you can’t eat avocados without tortillas,” warned the president of the UNFFAAC.
Other products whose production plummeted were beans, of which nearly 300 thousand tons were no longer produced in Zacatecas, Aguascalientes and Bajío alone and, as a result, the value of the beans tripled between January and October of this year. imports that reached 255 million dollars. In the same period of 2022, the value of bean purchases abroad was 83 million dollars, according to data from the Bank of Mexico.
Furthermore, in Sonora, the entity that produces the most wheat, production fell significantly due to the drought and, in Tamaulipas, sorghum production was also seriously affected.
Not only grains, but also agave prices plummeted. It was sold at 24 pesos per kilogram and currently it is paid at four pesos per kilo, so its production is also in danger.
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“Corn, drought and bad prices, production falls; beans, drought and there was no price, production fell; the agave, the price falls and production stops. People say I don’t plant agave because it’s not business,” concluded Luis Eduardo González Cepeda.
2023-12-29 11:00:00
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