Mexican Farmers Reject Token Increase in Corn Price; Nationwide Protests Continue
Mexican Farmers Reject Token Increase in Corn Price; Nationwide Protests Continue
GRETCHEN SMALL
October 29, 2025 . 5:37 PM 2 min read
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.
The National Front To Save the Mexican Countryside (FNRCM), which has been leading this
fight, dubbed Berdegué, the nominal Ag Secretary, as “Secretary for Chicago’s Speculative
Exchange.” 6,050 pesos a ton “will lead to more bankruptcies and loan defaults, in a Mexican
countryside that is on the brink of collapse, with accumulated losses over recent years,” the
FNRCM charged.
Berdegué defended 6,050 pesos per ton as a great offer because it is “25% above international
prices.” Yes, the FNRCM responded, but “domestic production costs have skyrocketed in
relation to the prices set by the Chicago speculative exchange controlled by large agro-financial
corporations,” and that is precisely why the farmers insist that “Mexican agriculture and its
staple crops cannot continue to be tied to the speculative Chicago Stock Exchange imposed by
the USMCA trade agreement, which robs domestic producers of their income, causes entire
segments of the food market to be lost, and weakens the country’s sovereignty by deepening its
dependence on food imports.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has been questioned about the farm protests in every
morning press conference this week. She acknowledged on Monday that the price of grains
“fell sharply this year and is expected to decline further next year. When the war in Ukraine
began, a ton of corn cost more than 7,000 pesos, but now it is around 3,200 pesos. So, it is a
huge decrease,” which obviously affects domestic producers. The government is “looking to
provide them with support, but also to work on a longer-term proposal that is not only subject
to the ups and downs of the market or the international price of corn,” she added.