Negotiations between the Mexican government, corn growers and representatives of the corn milling industry collapsed this past Monday, Oct. 27, when the industry reps and the Secretary of Agriculture set a price for corn which does not come anywhere near covering the farmers’ costs of production.
Farmers have been mobilizing for weeks to get the government to adopt a series of measures to save Mexico’s independent farmers by freeing staple grains from the grip of speculators, provide needed credits, ensure adequate water management, etc. Under today’s cartel-dictated conditions, Mexico’s farmers, like their counterparts in the United States, are going bankrupt in large numbers.
Monday’s negotiations were focused on setting a parity price for white corn. The farmers need 7,200 pesos per ton to keep farming; the milling industry “offered” 5,800 a ton. Secretary of Agriculture Julio Berdegué Sacristán accepted the latter proposal, with a token addition, announcing that farmers would get 6,050 pesos. That is 20% below what farmers require to keep producing. The corn growers from Mexico’s Central Valley states who represented the national farmers in these negotiations, walked out, and angrily informed supporters rallied outside that the negotiations had failed, and nationwide protests (blocking highways, etc.) would immediately resume.
