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Lower than expected feed demand is likely to reduce Mexico’s corn imports in 2020, with local consultancy firm Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agricolas (GCMA) revising their outlook from 17.2 million mt to 16.75 million mt.
“The decline in corn imports in 2020 is mainly due to a lower demand for animal feeding, which represents nearly 50% of total yellow corn consumption in Mexico,” Abel Rodriguez Montejo, an analyst with GCMA, has told Agricensus.
“Due to Covid-19, the sector grew at lower rates than initially expected. We have been seeing slower demand for corn by beef and pork producers,” the analyst said.
Rodriguez Montejo also said that 93% of total corn imports this year will be originated in the US, with Brazil accounting for the remaining 7%.
In 2019, Mexico had imported a total of 16.24 million mt of corn, according to GCMA figures.
Mexico is one of the world’s biggest importers of corn with the bulk of its imports typically sourced from the US.
Mexico has imported a total of 12.23 million mt of corn in the first nine months of 2020, an increase of 3.6% compared with the same period of 2019 when the country had imported 11.80 million mt, the latest available figures from GCMA showed.
Imports of US yellow corn amounted to 10.79 million mt in the period, climbing 5.3% year-on-year, while imports of Brazilian yellow corn reached 809,900 mt in the January-September period, down 5.6% versus the same period of 2019, GCMA said.