This article by Braulio Carbajal originally appeared in the November 24, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.
Between January and October, Mexico imported 40.7 million tons of grains and oilseeds, an unprecedented figure since records began (1993), which also represents an increase of 3.5 percent compared to the previous record of 39.33 million tons reported in the same period last year.
According to data from the National Customs Agency of Mexico (ANAM), provided by the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group (GCMA), imports maintained their upward trend in volume, while in value they decreased by 3.2 percent, as a result of lower international prices.
Corn (both white and yellow) remains the primary driver of growth in Mexican grain imports. In the first 10 months of the year, the country acquired a total volume of 21.2 million tons, an unprecedented level resulting from a 5.1 percent year-on-year increase.
Despite Mexico being nearly self-sufficient in corn production, US corn, which is subsidized by up to $5 billion USD annually, is flooding the Mexican market.
World’s Largest Importer
Purchases of white corn, of which Mexico is almost self-sufficient, have almost tripled, going from 216,000 tons between January and October 2024 to 840,000 tons in the same period of 2025.
The increase, said Juan Carlos Anaya, general director of the GCMA, is due to the growing competitiveness of imported white corn, which is cheaper than in Mexico.
“The global oversupply and depressed international prices, especially for corn from the United States, continue to drive higher import volumes at lower costs, which benefits the industry but puts pressure on domestic production,” he explained.
In this way, Mexico remains in the world ranking as the second largest importer of grains and oilseeds and the first global buyer of corn.
Businesswoman Altagracia Gómez is both a close economic advisor to President Claudia Sheinbaum and the head of Grupo Minsa, a major corn monopoly which has been implicated in the import & national corn production crisis.
For the United States, Mexico is a key trading partner, being its largest buyer of corn, wheat, beans, rice, soybean meal, and high-fructose corn syrup. It is also the second largest customer for soybeans and distillers dried grains with solubles.
In the case of sorghum, imports climbed from 29,800 tons last year to 796,300 tons in 2025, driven by greater needs from the livestock sector and a large external supply and attractive prices.
In the cases of wheat, rice, and oats, the variations in their imports were moderate, with increases of 0.1 and 0.2 percent in the first cases, and a drop of 3 percent in the third.
Meanwhile, the products with significant decreases in foreign purchases were beans, whose imports fell by 35 percent; barley and malt, with 7 percent; and the cotton complex, with 12 percent.
“Trade integration under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) reaffirms that Mexico is the most important market for placing U.S. agricultural surpluses, especially corn, wheat, and soybeans,” Anaya concluded.
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