The U.S. corn sector has been adamant that it cannot easily or quickly shift to producing non-GMO corn to comply with an upcoming Mexican ban, and Brazilian and Argentine farmers are telling Mexico they can’t make up for the expected loss of U.S. supplies.

Corn farmers from the U.S., Argentina and Brazil – members of the international group MAIZALL – are planning to head back to Mexico City in January to once again offer a united front in support of biotechnology ahead of the implementation of a Mexican decree banning corn that is scheduled to go into effect in January 2024.

The vast majority of corn in the U.S., Brazil and Argentina is grown with genetically modified seeds, and there’s simply no way to change that quickly enough to meet Mexico’s import demands, said John Linder, a former president of the National Corn Growers Association and a director at MAIZALL.

If Mexican government officials are not concerned now, they will be if the decree is enacted and the country can’t get the corn it needs for livestock feed, says Fernando Zelner, deputy secretary for trade and international relations at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture.

“You can have the policy, but you’re not going to find the volume (of corn) you need, so you’re going to hit a wall,” Zelner told Agri-Pulse. “They’re going to be forced to reconsider this policy. It’s not going to be sustainable.”

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