The farmers are angry at being unable to sell product from the most recent harvest at a fair price because of what they call “excessive imports” from the United States and South Africa.
Around 190,000 tons of corn cultivated in Jalisco remains unsold from the last agricultural cycle, said Jalisco Confederacion Nacional de Campesina (CNC) representative Gabriel Ponce at this week’s protest.
According to Ponce, the state Economic Secretariat has permitted 750,000 tons of corn to enter the state from the two aforementioned countries. He said he was unable to fathom how South Africa, which does not share a trade agreement with Mexico, is permitted to import so much corn.Industrialists blame the farmers for “speculating” and trying to sell the corn at too high a price – around 5,000 pesos a ton.
Fernando Lozano, the state director of the National Association of Food Manufacturers for Animal Feed, said imported corn can currently be bought for 4,300 pesos a ton.
Data from the federal Economic Ministry indicates that Mexico will produce 20.5 million tons of corn in the 2011-2012 cycle but that consumption is running at 30.3 million tons.
Jalisco leads the country in corn production, accounting for 15 percent of the total. For most of Mexico, corn is planted from the first of May through the end of June. It then silks from mid-July through mid-August. The Mexican corn harvest begins around the first of October and runs through the end of December.
Mexico is the world’s fourth biggest corn producer behind Brazil, China and the United States.
Many analysts had expected corn prices to move following reports in March that U.S. stockpiles of corn were down 7.9 percent on a year earlier and at an eight-year low.