Producers complain that the current price does not cover their costs; the industry defends that it operates within a globalized market that sets the grain's value; and between them lies a system that unevenly distributes the effects of the price drop. For the rest of the chain, especially medium and small producers, the bargaining power is much lower. The numbers make the situation in the countryside clear: with a tonne hovering around 5,000 pesos, the producer cannot cover the costs of between 4,000 and 4,500 pesos per hectare. Rodolfo Ostolaza, deputy director of economic studies at Banamex, explains this, recalling that 'the producer needs more than ten tonnes per hectare to be profitable with these results.' For Ostolaza, the main beneficiaries of the low price should be consumers: 'Logic would suggest that the price of tortillas should fall, but it doesn't happen. It's not about continuing to abandon the countryside.' Producers accuse them of using their market power to negotiate conditions and manipulate prices: they offer payments below production costs and prioritize purchases in the United States instead of the national product. 'So if it's not the consumers or the producers, it leaves the intermediaries and large companies.' And he warns that behind this imbalance there is a deeper risk for the country: 'Mexico depends on corn, beans, and chili. However, corn passes through several hands before becoming tortillas, balanced feed, or snacks. And on that route appear the few actors who most benefit from the low price. The main group is that of large flour mills. More than ten million tonnes pass through the nixtamal mills, with eleven thousand establishments that grind the grain and about a hundred thousand tortillerias that buy corn or dough. Of that total, only 3.37 million correspond to the flour mills, such as Gruma, Grupo Minsa, and Limaza, it is only 6% of the demand,' justifies Anaya. In the country, few operate on a national scale, such as Gruma, Limaza, or Grupo Minsa - the latter with a special mention since its president is Altagracia Gómez, a link between Claudia Sheinbaum and the business sector. The same thing happens with snack companies and livestock groups that make feed for chickens and cattle, including Bachoco and SuKarne, as well as global marketers like Cargill or ADM. Producers accuse the existence of a 'business cartel' protected by Sheinbaum and Minsa, Altagracia, in turn, disassociates herself. For all of them, corn is a central input, and a lower price means a direct reduction in their costs. The national blockade of agricultural producers and transporters this week made it clear who the losers are with the fall in the international price of corn.
