Mexico Ranks Among World’s Leading Food Producers in 2024

In 2024, Mexico remained one of the world’s largest food producers. At the same time, average wages for agricultural producers and fishers increased nationwide, and the country achieved self-sufficiency in essential products for food security, such as beans, milk, and rice.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) presented the Agri-Food Outlook 2025, which reported that by the close of the 2024 agricultural cycle (which runs through March 2025), Mexico recorded 289.9Mt of agricultural products, with a total value of MX$1.5 trillion (US$88.3 billion). This performance places Mexico among the world’s leading food-producing countries and as the 14th-largest food exporter globally.

On a global scale, China stands as the largest food producer, leading production of rice, wheat, and corn, among other agricultural products. It is followed in order of importance by India, the United States, and Brazil. In terms of exports, the United States was the world’s leading food exporter in 2022, accounting for 9% of total global sales, followed by Brazil with 7% and the Netherlands with 6%, according to FAO’s Statistical Yearbook 2024.

In his message accompanying the release of the report, Julio Berdegué, Minister, SADER, attributed the year’s strong results to the daily work of women and men producers. He highlighted that agricultural GDP grew 3.1% in real terms year over year; within that growth, the agricultural subsector expanded by 3.8%, while the livestock subsector grew 2.5%, according to data from INEGI.

He added that, also based on INEGI data, employment in primary activities increased by 125,000 people as of September compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, average income in the agricultural sector reached MX$5,568.8, representing a 5.9% annual increase. In the fishing and aquaculture sector, average income rose from MX$7,926.05 to MX$9,449.6, an increase of 19.2%.

Berdegué underscored the importance of this indicator, noting that people living in poverty spend half or more of their total income on food. “We have always faced difficulties and challenges, such as droughts, floods, prices, and many other issues, but the countryside is standing strong, will remain standing, and will continue building food sovereignty,” he said. 

Jorge Domínguez, Acting Head, General Directorate of the Agri-Food and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP), reported that of the 6.1 million workers in the agricultural sector, 811,000 are women, highlighting the growing role of women in agriculture. He also emphasized the country’s sufficiency in basic food basket products, citing 1.19Mtof beans, an estimated 13.786 million liters of milk, and 234,000Mt of rice.

Irvin Rojas, General Coordinator of Information, Intelligence, and Evaluation, SADER, explained that organized, accessible, and useful information is essential for designing public policy. For this reason, he said, a unit was created not to monopolize data, but to make it more agile and readily available. He detailed that modernization efforts also include technological capabilities, such as the Remote Station Mexico, which provides geospatial information for contemporary analysis of planting, harvesting, and the agricultural frontier.

Finally, Lina Pohl, FAO Representative in Mexico, stated that the Agri-Food Outlook 2025 is a strategic tool to strengthen well-being across agriculture, livestock, and fisheries by placing reliable information at the service of decision-making.