Did we need to block 30 roads to look at the countryside? The price per ton of corn is the spark that lit the flame now, but it is far from the only problem. The protesting farmers complain of insecurity, access to water, gangsterism of the middlemen who buy their production and unfair competition from the United States, among other things.
Corn is setting off alarm bells now, although it has been leaving a trail of data for years that does not invite optimism. Since 2015, national production has fallen 3.7%, while imports grew 78 percent. In 2025, a good national harvest is expected, but everything indicates that the import record will be broken: between January and August, 16.8 million tons of yellow corn have been purchased, worth 3,573 million dollars. Most of this corn is genetically modified and comes from the United States.
There are protests in 18 states. There are thousands of people, who have the capacity to dislocate nerve centers in a country of 130 million people. The demonstrations dislocate, but they also make us think. Deep down, we all know that corn is more than just a food. The producers who block the roads and accesses to Mexico City expose a circumstance for which the Government has had no solutions. In the complex sea of problems in the countryside, corn is one of the most important. The market price has fallen from 7,000 pesos per ton in 2022 to 5,200 pesos in 2025. In the same period, production costs have risen around 50%, producers say.
What can the Government do? The Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Julio Berdegué, is a person who knows the field in depth. He worked at the FAO and has extensive international experience… but at SADER he does not have a large budget to solve this crisis with bills, nor is he a political operator. In the first round of negotiations, he offered government support of 850 pesos per ton so that producers would receive a little more than 6,000 pesos in total. Berdegué’s offer was rejected with signs of indignation. The producers want 1,000 pesos more. They demand more than 7,000 pesos per ton. This is more than 30% of the price determined by the Chicago Futures Market.
Is it worth taking Chicago as a reference for prices in Mexico? The industrialists who process corn have been doing it this way for years. It is a transparent mechanism, which reflects a reality: you can buy corn elsewhere at a much lower price than what national producers aspire to. Of course, the corn produced in Mexico is white, more suitable for the tastes of the Mexican consumer.
The yellow corn that comes from the United States has characteristics that make it ideal as livestock feed and also as an input for industrial processing. Corn is used in the manufacture of soap; It is raw material for lubricants and leather care products, also for the paper, textile and mining industries. Corn is so important on the table and in industrial chains that an increase in its price would have an impact on the country’s inflation. I do not intend for producers to become an anti-inflationary anchor, but it is better to do the math.
Stop the entry of corn from the United States, says one of the signs on a blockade of the highway that goes from Guadalajara to Morelia. At another time, this would be a bad idea because we are deficient in this product that is symbolic, but also strategic. We are short about 23 million tons per year. In the time of Donald Trump, it is a terrible idea. Corn sales to Mexico represent around $5 billion annually for the United States. Any restriction would threaten the business relationship with our main partner. It would hit the economy of a region known as the Corn Belt, where Indiana, Kansas, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, among others, are located. In support of the arguments of those who complain of unfair competition, it is true that the United States subsidizes its producers with billions of dollars. There they are dollars, here they are cents.
To lift road blocks it will take much more than what the Government put on the table in its first proposal. More money, from an administration that continues to try to cut spending to close the hole left in public finances by AMLO’s sixth year. It is an issue that will cost hundreds or billions of pesos, but it does not stop at the Budget. What will we do about insecurity, access to water, the aging of rural producers (who are over 50 years old on average) and the effects of climate change… floods and droughts?
