Protests by corn producers have reached Altagracia Gómez, the liaison between Claudia Sheinbaum and the business sector, as the company she heads, Minsa, is accused of manipulating prices that are currently affecting the sector.
Among the protesters, it is claimed that one of the reasons for the low prices of seed, affecting their businesses, is related to intermediaries—large milling companies that offer payments below production costs and prioritize purchases in the United States over the national product.
According to the producers, Maseca, Minsa, and Cargill sell a ton of flour for 17,000 pesos but pay less than a third of that value for a ton of corn.
They thus accuse the existence of a "business cartel" in the sector protected by Claudia Sheinbaum.
Minsa is one of the main companies producing and distributing white corn, in the hands of Gómez Sierra, which has begun to generate annoyance over the entrepreneur's proximity to the National Palace and suspicion about the scope of the agreements that Julio Berdegué seeks to achieve.
The corn crisis exposes Berdegué and complicates his electoral aspirations in Sinaloa.
Although the conflict has been going on for a whole month, the company has only responded through a statement issued to the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), where it stated that the lower prices are related to a widespread drop at the international level, added to the exchange rate.
In this sense, it denied that they make a greater import over the national purchase of corn.
"For context, in the last six years the company has bought about 4,000,000 tons of national white corn and has only imported 69,815 tons," it assured.
It also said that the prices it pays are above international prices "because it incorporates a premium for national corn that currently represents about a thousand pesos per ton over the international reference, this results in an increase of 24% over the price of the imported yellow corn used in other sectors," it said.
It added: "Minsa acquires approximately 1% of the total consumption of corn in Mexico, so it does not define, nor does it intend to set the prices of corn".
