SATELLITE VIEW
SATELLITE VIEW
in the state, but this year the water levels in those reservoirs are limited. Normally, farmers might plant around 550,000 hectares (ha) of corn, with maybe 60,000 ha of beans – 70,000 ha in a good year. On top of that we’ll plant maybe 50,000 ha of chickpeas. Added together, the chickpeas and beans don’t even represent half of what we plant in corn. Producers prefer corn because it has profitability and also a kind of commercial certainty due to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Beans and chickpeas are different – you have to put your finger in the air and gauge which way the wind is blowing. That's why farmers opt for corn whenever they can. However, the scarcity of water this year will mean less corn is seeded, which is sure to bump up the acreage of chickpeas and beans. This is only the second year we are seeing a significant quantity of pinto beans in the autumn/winter crop, and we could
see between 10,000-20,000 ha planted, as well as between 60,000-70,000 ha of yellow beans. For chickpeas, we could see between 70,000-80,000 ha. How is the new minimum guaranteed price for beans incentivizing farmers? The government has announced a guaranteed price of 27 pesos/MT for beans in the next spring/summer crop, which is a very attractive price for farmers. It's understandable that when they're being offered these prices and are not being given permission to plant corn, they will look to a crop they know how to grow and understand well. Whether or not the price they're being offered becomes reality remains to be seen. Mexico has seen a dramatic rise in bean imports, what’s causing this? The rise in imports has gone hand- in-hand with the effect of the drought
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