SATELLITE VIEW
SATELLITE VIEW
– mother nature hasn't smiled on us recently and production has dropped considerably. The only reason the impact of the drought hasn't been even stronger, is that consumption in Mexico has dropped. When I came into the industry in 2007, people spoke about a per capita annual consumption of 14/15 kg, whereas today we are talking about half or less than half of that. Consumption here is greatly correlated with age, so even population growth hasn't compensated for the general drop in consumption. What’s your outlook on the future of bean imports? Issues with climate have hit us hard and we've needed to bring in beans from our historic supplier, the USA. However, we have needed to look for different options and other sources, such as Brazil, Argentina and even China, to ensure that prices don't shoot up significantly. If you
look at the imports between 2015-2019, you were looking at 114 KMT on average every year during that period. In the period between 2020-2024, you're looking at an average of 215 KMT every year – almost double the rate of imports, due in large part to the impact of climate- related factors. This market year has seen a record in terms of import numbers and we're getting up to around 460 KMT of imported beans overall. However, I think next year will see a return to the mean. How would a possible 10% "universal" import tax in the US impact Mexico? Any import taxes on Mexican exports to the USA aren't likely to have a particular effect on pulses. It would affect yellow beans, which is a very niche market that we fulfill on a regular basis for Mexican expats, but otherwise, bean imports into the US from Mexico tend to be opportunistic ones.
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