Mexican imports of cereals from the United States grew at a year-on-year rate of 33.9% in the first quarter of 2022, to 1,724 million dollars, which represented a record.
Cereals are one of the products that have increased their prices the most and this was reflected in 2021, when the respective Mexican imports from the United States were 6,459 million dollars, a growth of 68.3% per year.
Overall, Mexico ranks as the second largest destination for US grain exports, after China.
Mexico’s share of total United States cereal shipments increased, as the growth rate of these shipments to the entire world (13.3%, to 9,321 million dollars) was lower than that corresponding to Mexico in the first quarter of 2022.
In particular, Mexico was positioned as the first destination for US wheat exports from January to March 2022, with purchases for 386 million dollars, an increase of 31.9% year-on-year.
It was also the first in US foreign sales of rice, with $91 million, an increase of 33.9%, year over year.
And it was the second destination of United States corn exports, with 1,220 million dollars, 27.9% more compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Finally, Mexico bought 27 million dollars of US sorghum in the first quarter of the current year, an increase of 143.1% over the same period in 2021.
Over the past few weeks, world grain markets have been affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the almost total cessation of grain exports from Ukraine.
As Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat and maize, the result has been a sudden shift in demand to other suppliers and a notable increase in export prices for these grains.
Also, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), while Ukrainian quotes are no longer available, as the country strives to start shipping by rail instead of by sea, Russian wheat quotations and exports have resumed, resulting in some price stabilization.
Corn export quotations have eased slightly with impending South American harvests, but remain historically high.
In stark contrast to record and near-record prices for maize and wheat over the past month, rice quotations have remained remarkably stable amid uninterrupted and adequate supplies for major exporters.
Indeed, according to the USDA, quotations from India, the largest supplier of rice, have remained static and are currently below major export quotations for both wheat and maize, an anomaly.
In the last two decades, the quotations of the major wheat exporters only briefly exceeded rice in 2007 and 2008, and the quotations of the major maize exporters have never been above rice.