Mexico’s incoming government, under President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, will discard a core goal of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration to reduce imports of yellow corn and achieve self-sufficiency in its production, according to the incoming agriculture minister, Julio Berdegue.
Berdegue told Reuters that Mexico will instead focus on maintaining self-sufficiency in white corn, which is commonly used in the country’s staple tortilla. He said the new administration’s “aspirational goal” is to reduce deforestation linked to the agriculture sector by half by the end of Sheinbaum’s six-year term.
Under Lopez Obrador’s administration, Mexico had aimed to dramatically reduce imports of yellow corn, mostly originating from the U.S., in favor of boosting local production. However, the government failed to reduce the country’s annual yellow corn imports of around $6 billion during his tenure.
This policy originated from Lopez Obrador’s attempts to limit the use of genetically-modified (GM) corn, a position that sparked an ongoing trade dispute with the U.S., Mexico’s largest commercial partner. Most imported yellow corn is GM and used as fodder for Mexico’s livestock sector.
Sheinbaum’s government will now abandon the ambition to replace yellow corn imports with local production, marking a rare divergence from Lopez Obrador’s established policies. Berdegue said Mexico’s goal is not self-sufficiency in yellow corn, but rather to produce more.
“Our objective is not to reduce imports, our objective is to produce more,” Berdegue said, adding that Mexico will likely have to continue importing large amounts of yellow corn due to the increased demand in the livestock sector as Mexicans’ appetite for meat products grows.
The U.S. has said Mexico’s plan to limit GM corn is not based on science and violates its commitments under the USMCA trade pact. A trade panel is expected to issue a formal ruling on the dispute by the end of this year.