Exclusive: As Trump trashes NAFTA, Mexico turns to Brazilian corn

[bronxiteforever]

February 22, 2018
CHICAGO/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican buyers imported ten times more corn from Brazil last year amid concern that NAFTA renegotiations could disrupt their U.S. supplies, according to government data and top grains merchants. Mexico has long been the top importer of U.S. corn, and is the second largest buyer of U.S. soybeans. But Mexican buyers are shifting to Brazilian corn to reduce their decades-old reliance on U.S. supplies for mills, and for animal feed for pigs and cows.

U.S. farmers, food processors and grain traders have spent months trying to prevent trade relationships from falling apart if the North American Free Trade Agreement implodes. They are trying to protect more than $19 billion in sales to Mexican buyers of everything from corn and soybeans to dairy and poultry.

Despite their efforts, South American corn shipments to Mexico are surging. Mexican buyers imported a total of more than 583,000 metric tonnes of Brazilian corn last year – a 970 percent jump over 2016, according to data from Mexico’s Agrifood and Fishery Information Service (SIAP). The purchases all came in the last four months of last year.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-effect-corn-exclusive/exclusive-as-trump-trashes-nafta-mexico-turns-to-brazilian-corn-idUSKCN1G61J4

[no_hypocrisy]

1. And (to the best of my knowledge) Brazilian corn is not GM corn.

Mexico has been resistant to demands of U.S. Agribusiness that it accept GM corn and Round-Up pesticides.

[Major Nikon]

8. Most of it is

The percentages are not that much different from US corn production. You also have far less agriculture regulation in Brazil, which unlike GM pretty much insures a far higher ecological impact.

[Vinca]

2. Take that all you Iowa "MAGA" farmers.

Maybe next time they'll use their heads and stay away from the cult.

[bronxiteforever]

3. [phone]

[bullwinkle428]

6. Lived here for 30 years. They are such a RW cult. I really hope their

heads are on the verge of exploding at this point!

[malaise]

9. You win the thread

[beachbum bob]

4. karma at work

pay back is a motherfuker

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Maybe the farmorons will learn that Trump will eventually screw EVERYONE. That includes Midwestern farmorons with red MAGA hats.

Watch out for the farm auctioneers, you DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS.

Hey, soybean morons. You're next.

[OnDoutside]

7. Interesting background piece from July 2017

The Great Corn Clash Is Coming as U.S., Brazil Farmers Face Off

July 30, 2017, 9:00 PM GMT+1 Updated on July 31, 2017, 4:09 PM GMT+1

The world’s biggest corn exporters are preparing for a showdown.

Brazilian farmers are in the midst of collecting their biggest corn harvest ever and American supplies are also plentiful -- setting the stage for a stiff battle to win world buyers in the second half of the year.

It’s a turnaround from just a year ago when U.S. exporters were seeing sales boom as a drought plagued Brazil’s fields. This year, the South American growers enjoyed much better weather and crop supplies have gotten so big that farmers are already short on storage after collecting a massive soybean harvest just a few months earlier. That’s giving exporters incentive to push corn shipments out quickly and could mean a squeeze for hedge funds that are betting on a price rally. "Buyers rule in the global corn market this season," Pedro Dejneka, a partner at Chicago-based MD Commodities, said in telephone interview. "Competition between the two major exporters will be tough."

Japan and Mexico are expected to be the biggest corn importers this season, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

SNIP

Brazil’s corn production in the 2016-17 season is forecast to surge 45 percent from a year ago to a record 97 million metric tons, according to the USDA. The agency estimates that the 2016 U.S. harvest reached an all-time high and that the crop gathered this fall will be the second-bigger ever. The USDA will make its first survey-based estimates of U.S. production in August.

Competition has ramped up for farmers in the U.S., the world’s biggest grower and exporter. Brazil, which barely shipped any corn just two decades ago, has since emerged as a significant competitor. Sales are also on the rise from Argentina, which reaped a record harvest this season.

Meanwhile, U.S. corn shippers are seeing slow bookings for the coming marketing year, which starts in September. The 4 million tons of new-crop outstanding sales as of July 20 were 44 percent below last year and the lowest for the date since 2010, USDA data show.
"U.S. exports probably will continue to flag lower, while South America’s continue push higher,” Don Roose, president of U.S. Commodities in West Des Moines, Iowa, said in a telephone interview. "It’s going to be a real fight."

more at

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-30/the-great-corn-clash-is-coming-as-u-s-brazil-farmers-face-off