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Better than expected yields in some Mexican producing regions are expected to cut the country’s 2021 corn imports by nearly 500,000 mt, Abel Rodriguez Montejo, an analyst with local consultancy firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agricolas (GCMA), has told Agricensus.
The consultancy firm now expects Mexico, which is one of the world’s biggest corn importers, to import 17.47 million mt of corn this year, down compared to their initial estimate of 18 million mt.
“Corn production in some regions in the southeast part of the country and in the Bajio region is expected to reach nearly 500,000 mt more than the initial expectations. Apart from this, corn production in Sinaloa will be not affected as initially expected by severe weather. Corn yields in Sinaloa will be still low but not as low as we had initially expected in January,” the executive said.
Rodriguez Montejo also noted that the consultancy is expecting a national corn production of 27.13 million mt of corn in the 2020/21 cycle, slightly down from 27.38 million mt in the previous cycle.
Mexico imported 16.06 million mt of corn in 2020, down 1.1% from the 16.24 million mt imported in 2019, according to GCMA, with most of it – some 14.04 million mt coming from the US.
The country is largely self-sufficient in white corn but depends on imports of mostly GMO yellow corn from the US for livestock feed.
The government of Mexico decreed at the end of December that it wants to eliminate the use of glyphosate and genetically modified corn from the domestic market and is working with local producers in order to meet that target through a process of gradual substitution.