Suárez explained that Mexico is advancing “significantly” in its objective of replacing the import of the grain, which comes almost entirely from the United States, but will fail to meet the goal of totally replacing it.
“We are not going to be able to produce an additional 16 million tons of corn that today is mainly imported for the livestock sector. We are going to make significant progress but we are not going to achieve the objective of substitution,” Suárez said at a press conference.
“This is an issue that will need to be addressed by the new administration by continuing the strategy to rescue the countryside and food self-sufficiency,” he added.
Mexico is self-sufficient in white corn, but is highly dependent on imports of yellow corn, which it uses mainly for livestock feed.
The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ends its six years of government in the second half of 2024.