Mexico’s Jan-May corn imports up 2% year-on-year: GCMA

Mexico imported 6.5 million mt of corn in the first five months of 2020, up 2% compared with the same period of 2019, according to the latest available figures from local consultancy firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agricolas (GCMA).

Abel Rodriguez Montejo, an analyst with GCMA, told Agricensus that the import figures recorded in the first five months of the year remain in line with the agency's previous import outlook for full 2020, but corn imports could still rise due to lower-than-expected yields in Sinaloa, Mexico’s main corn-producing state.

“Corn yields in Sinaloa were lower than initially expected due to adverse weather conditions. The level of water in the corn sowing window was not adequate and due to this, farmers had to sow corn in a phased process, which negatively impacted yields,” the analyst said.

Rodriguez Montejo said that lower yields could have reduced corn production in Sinaloa by approximately 200,000-250,000 mt.

Mexico is one of the world’s biggest importers of corn with the vast majority of the country’s imports typically sourced from the US, although in 2019 Brazil made some in-roads into supply, with 1.82 million mt or 11% of total imports sourced from Brazil.

GCMA expects Mexico’s 2020 corn production to reach 26.55 million mt, down compared with 2019 corn production of 27.07 million mt, and in June the association forecast total corn imports of 17.85 million mt in 2020, up versus the 16.25 million mt in 2019.

Mexico has also imported a total of 1.97 million mt of wheat in the January-May 2020 period, up 8.4% from the 1.82 million mt in the same period of 2019, according to the GCMA figures.

Imports from the US amounted to 1.43 million mt in the period, up 3.6%  year-on-year, while Mexico also imported wheat from Canada, Russia, France and Ukraine.

In the first five months of 2019, corn imports came from just the US, Canada and Russia.