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“We have [the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement], so free
trade should be flowing between the U.S. and Mexico,” Matt Rush,
president of Illinois Corn Growers Association, told The Center
Square.
Many Illinois corn growers like Rush have genetically modified
white corn plants in the ground now for the fall crop that is
destined for Mexico.
“When Mexico first announced this in the middle of February, the
local cash price dropped 60 cents a bushel overnight,” Rush
said. “It’s rebounded a little bit. The basis is up 20 cents
from where it was in February.”
Mexico and China are consistently in the top three markets for
Illinois grown corn. Farmers are a little confused by the
Mexican tariff announcement, Rush said. They want a resolution
before they purchase seed this fall for their 2024 crop.
“Mexico is a huge importer of our corn, and we want to keep that
relationship open,” Rush said. “But we have all agreed, the U.S.
and Canada and Mexico, to the USMCA, and we just need to hold
them accountable for that.”
Illinois corn farmers will pivot to purchase and grow non-GMO
seed for export if that is what Mexico wants, Rush said.
“We can grow that, but it is just going to take us some
pre-planning and a timeline that just doesn’t get sprung on us,”
he said.
Farmers typically buy their seed in the fall, five or six months
before they plant in the spring. Seed companies start growing
the seed two years before that, Rush said.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrado said he expects the
regulation on GMO white corn to be in place by the end of the
year.
Most of the white corn that Mexico buys from Illinois is for
food products, like masa and tortillas. Yellow corn is for
animal feed. Mexico imports both white and yellow corn from the
United States.
On a call last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told
reporters that he is continuing to follow the trade dispute
settlement process that was begun earlier this year when the
regulation on biotech corn was announced.
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