Mexico’s Jan-Sep corn imports up 3.6% year-on-year: GCMA

Mexico has imported a total of 12.23 million mt of corn in the first nine months of 2020, an increase of 3.6% compared with the same period of 2019 when the country had imported 11.80 million mt, the latest available figures from local consultancy firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agricolas (GCMA) show.

Imports of US yellow corn amounted to 10.79 million mt in the period, climbing 5.3% year-on-year, while imports of Brazilian yellow corn reached 809,900 mt in the January-September period, down 5.6% versus the same period of 2019, GCMA said.

Abel Rodriguez Montejo, an analyst with GCMA, previously told Agricensus that the consultancy firm is expecting total corn imports of 17.2 million mt this year, up compared to the 16.25 million mt imported in 2019.

Mexico also imported a total of 3.37 million mt of wheat in the January-September period, down 6.3% versus the 3.60 million mt imported in 2019, with US imports contributing to 2.49 million mt over the period.

Wheat imports from the US fell by 8.5% year-on-year while imports from Canada grew by 25.8% over the period. During the January-September period, Mexico also imported wheat from France, Russia and Ukraine.

According to the USDA’s latest supply and demand report, Mexico is forecast to import 17 million mt of corn in the 2019/20 crop cycle, up from 16.65 million mt in the previous cycle.

For the 2020/21 cycle, corn imports are expected to reach 18.3 million mt.

In the wheat segment, the US agency expects total imports in 2019/20 to reach 5.08 million mt, up from 4.86 million mt in the 2018/19 crop.

USDA reported that Mexico is forecast to import 5.3 million mt of wheat in the 2020/21 cycle.