Mexico corn supply chain industrial sector agriculture ministry, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Columba Jazmín López Gutiérrez, called on the industrial sector to closely follow the commitments of the agreement creating the White Corn Production and Marketing Planning System, signed on May 20, 2026. She also asked industry to prioritize purchases of domestic grain and finalize advance contracting schemes that give economic certainty to the country’s producers.
Speaking at the Second National Industrialized Corn Forum 2026, organized by the National Chamber of Industrialized Corn (Canami), López Gutiérrez said, “We need your purchases and for imports to be reduced. The industry determines whether primary production sells well and whether rural poverty belts continue to form.” She said the Secretariat has implemented an integrated strategy based on three financial and operational pillars: consolidated purchases of inputs, accessible credit, and price hedges for small and medium-scale farmers.
According to the secretary, these measures are projected to reduce costs for farmers by 14.8 percent, and those who adopt the full package are estimated to achieve a profitability of 24.4 percent. In coordination with the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit and the Trust Funds for Agriculture (FIRA), 1.775 million tons of corn have been protected through the price hedging mechanism, she said.
López Gutiérrez also noted that under the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, credit disbursements under the Cosechando Soberanía program have risen from 1,000 to 28,000, with support from six banking institutions. She added that more than 8 billion pesos in such instruments have been granted over the past five months for crops including corn, rice and wheat.
She further stated that programs such as the Special Energy Program for the Countryside for agricultural electricity use (PEUA), El Maíz es la Raíz, Production for Well-Being, and Fertilizers for Well-Being serve producers while promoting biofertilizers, agroecology and genetic improvement through Field Schools and Peasant Learning Communities of Sembrando Vida. “A government’s effort to do things right cannot remain solely in good will and isolated actions; we must move forward together.
Industry is an extremely important link in this chain,” she said.
Canami President Luis Patrón Sarti emphasized that “the future of this industry must be built with the participation and commitment of everyone, from producers to final consumers.” Alejandro Malagón Barragán, president of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers of the United Mexican States (Concamin), highlighted the sector’s strategic importance to economic development and pledged close collaboration with the Agriculture Secretariat and producers.
He said national agro-industry exports grew by more than 5.0 percent in the first seven months of the year, with an agrifood trade surplus exceeding 3.5 billion dollars.
Bram Govaerts, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), recognized the Secretariat’s collaboration on conserving native maize biodiversity and returning it to communities of origin. Andrea Genoveva Solano Rendón, head of the Standards, Competitiveness and Competition Unit of the Ministry of Economy, added that President Sheinbaum “has placed at the center the promotion of national production, the strengthening of our food sovereignty and the creation of better conditions for the well-being of Mexicans,” through the Plan México.
