In October 2024, Mexico’s anti-trust authority decried the situation as being an oligopoly, and singled out Maseca, Minsa, Gruma, Cargill as paying unfair prices for white corn while reaping extreme profits selling to tortilla shops.
It’s essential the government develop a comprehensive plan for rural development that goes beyond combating poverty & marginalization & promotes a development policy that supports farmers.
Farmers in Mexico are protesting, blockading areas across the country, challenging the low prices they receive for corn & highlighting the role of intermediaries in the supply chain & US dumping of heavily subsidized corn.
As Monday’s protests demonstrate, Mexican farmers are at a breaking point. Caught between the USMCA trade agreement and a wall of policies that ignore them, they are fighting for their survival. Their anger will not subside anytime soon.
“We’re all worn out from working so hard, while you support businessmen who earn billions!,” exclaimed Salvador Ruiz, a farmer from Jalisco, to the Agriculture Secretariat’s delegate.
Campesinos are demanding the federal government craft a sovereign agricultural scheme & leave the speculative market of the Chicago Stock Exchange, which forces prices well below production value.
Maseca, Minsa, Bachoco, Keken and Crio executives, who import corn from US, also failed to show up to the meeting despite promises from the government.
Heavily subsidized corn from the US is flooding the market, destroying farmers’ livelihoods and leading to country-wide strikes & blockades as the government’s stated concern for food sovereignty is questioned.
The unsuccessful meeting arose after the government agreed to it to end a November 12th sugarcane grower blockade in Mexico City.
Mexico’s imports are equivalent to 48% of agricultural production, resulting in a year-on-year loss of food sovereignty and a greater dependence on capital inflows which benefits the financial sector at the expense of national public & private sectors.