September 22, 2008

Mexico says corn harvest on track to rise 6.8 percent

Mexico's 2008 corn harvest is still on track to reach 25,115,015 metric tonnes one month before the onset of the important central Bajio spring-summer harvest, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday (September 20).

This is up 6.8 percent compared to Mexican corn production in 2007, when output reached 23,512,752 tonnes of mostly white corn, which primarily is used for domestic consumption and the production of the key staple tortilla.

The latest revision of the Mexican corn crop for the 2008 agricultural year is also a tad higher than the ministry's previous forecast, which pegged the 2008 corn crop to reach 25 million tonnes.

The latest figures come one month before harvesting of Mexico's key white corn crop in the central Bajio region starts in the second half of October. Bajio produces the second largest commercial crop after northern Sinaloa state.

Traders and importers have pegged the Bajio crop to reach a healthy 3 million tonnes, while Sinaloa recently completed the 2007-08 fall-winter harvest, which was forecast to reach close to 5 million tonnes.

Except for smaller commercial corn crops in northern Chihuahua, Durango and Tamaulipas, the remainder of Mexico's corn harvest is mostly produced by subsistence farmers with one or two hectares of land per family.

The ministry said overall food crop production in the first half of 2008 rose 1.6 percent to 106.9 million tonnes. This included 99.7 million tonnes from the 2007-08 fall-winter crop and 7.2 million tonnes from the 2007 spring-summer crop, which is sold through February.

Mexico's 2008 agriculture year includes the 2007-08 fall-winter crop harvested from May to August, and the 2008 spring-summer crop, which is harvested between October and December.