Government Takes Action as COVID-19 Looms

The government has announced its intention to support middle-sized corn farmers with price guarantees as the COVID-19 situation could impact their operations and overall sales. This is a welcome measure as corn farmers have been struggling to compete with US bulk imports of corn for years.

COVID-19-related panic purchases led to egg prices doubling or even tripling in certain parts of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) is calling on people not to hoard basic food products, as strategic reserves are guaranteed for at least 100 days and agricultural supply chains remain running.

Ready for more? Here is the week’s most important news!

COVID-19

• Minister of Economy Graciela Marquez assured the country this week that the food supply is guaranteed, with sufficient stored supplies in the strategic reserves of DICONSA (food) and LICONSA (milk) up to 100 days, both now part of SEGALMEX with LICONSA as a subsidiary. Stored goods are distributed over 300 warehouses in the country, delivering to 26,000 stores. In response to this statement, SADER has called on the public to avoid panic food purchases. They pointed to the fact that national and international supply chains continue to deliver food, despite COVID-19 contingency measures.

• SADER has announced guaranteed price support for medium-scale maize producers. President López Obrador, in his morning brief on Wednesday, stated that producers would receive help to reach a price of US$177 per ton of white corn. The measure is expected to benefit around 25,000 medium-sized producers of up to 50ha and 600 tons of production each, primarily in the states of Sinaloa, Southern Sonora and Tamaulipas.

• In response to the announcement to guarantee prices for white corn, PRI Deputy Alfredo Villegas warned that this is not a guarantee that corn farmers will be safe over the coming period. He pointed to the danger of US farmers taking advantage of the conditions to dump maize on the Mexican market and the high costs of commercializing corn products for medium scale farmers.

• Egg prices have jumped from MX$40 (US$1.71) to MX$50 (US$2.13) per kilogram to MX$90 (US$3.84) in some areas of the country due to speculation and panic purchases. To prevent people from hoarding food, the National Alliance of Small Merchants (ANPEC) has asked the federal government, the Ministry of the Economy and the Federal Consumer Prosecutor (PROFECO) to pay special attention to the price of eggs.

• The President of the Executive Commission of the Social Movement for the Earth (MST), Francisco Chew Plascencia, warned this week that food production and employment could suffer as the COVID-19 situations worsens. This would be excarcebated due to the cancellation of Seguro Popular and the lack of access to healthcare. Given that rural areas lack basic services such as water drainage and internet, the situation could be very grave if the pandemic were to reach rural areas. The leader pointed to a heavy potential impact on grain production in the spring-summer cycle between March 1 and September 30. Pointing to cuts in spending on agriculture, the leader stated that helping only 60-year-olds and those older with more benefits will not solve the problem. Recently, the president announced his intention to advance special benefits for this population segment, which is the most vulnerable group in the face of COVID-19.

SADER Programs

• The ministry has published the operating guidelines for the Program for the Promotion of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture. The program includes the proposed financial benefits for small-scale producers in different areas of production.

• Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Miguel Garcia Winder, stated this week that the 2020 Fertilizers Program will benefit an estimated 270,000 small-scale producers with up to 2ha of land in the state of Guerrero. The fertilizers will be Urea and DAP, in an effort coordinated by the ministry before the rainy season starts.

Science & Technology

• Researchers from the Master’s of Science in Sustainable Agri-food Innovation at Colegio de Postgraduados en Ciencias Agricolas and the Food and Biotechnology area of ​​Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Tierra Blanca have developed biodegradable coatings and films that do not contaminate and have proven to be effective in the conservation of fruits and vegetables. This development could help reduce postharvest food loss.

National Production Figures

• Mexico’s agri-food trade balance with the world grew to an almost 20 percent surplus in January.

• It was reported that in this month, agricultural and agro-industrial exports generated US$3.1 billion, with an increase of 6.20 percent compared to the same period in 2019.