The main sugar companies in Mexico are BSM, Zucarmex, Piasa, Santos and Porres, according to data from the 2020-2021 harvest.
The sugar industry is one of the most important agro-industrial activities in the world.
In the 2020/2021 business cycle, nine large producing countries had a supply of around 123.4 million metric tons of crude value, of which they consumed 84.0 million in their domestic markets and placed 49.3 million tons in the international sugar market.
In particular, Mexico is the eighth largest sugar producer in the world, with a production of approximately 5.7 million (at raw value) of tons valued at almost 4,200 million dollars during the 2020/2021 harvest, according to the National Chamber of the Sugar and Alcohol Industries (CNIAA).
The country is also one of the largest consumers of sugar in terms of annual per capita consumption, according to the same source.
The price of Mexican sugar has shown significant fluctuations, reaching levels of 743 dollars per ton at the end of the year.
Sugar companies
During the 2020/2021 harvest, 49 mills operated in Mexico. These mills are mainly controlled by groups or companies, with three groups standing out that reached the production of 2.8 million tons of sugar produced annually: BSM, Zucarmex, Piasa, which together represented 48.6% of national production in the 2020/2021 harvest.
Until April 2015, FEESA controlled nine mills and BSM, Zucarmex and Piasa controlled six, four and two mills, respectively, located mainly in the states of Veracruz, Jalisco and San Luis Potosí.
However, currently, and as a result of the tenders carried out during 2015, the government no longer has mills under its control, and BSM, Zucarmex and Piasa 11, six and three respectively.
The following table shows the main sugar companies in Mexico for the periods indicated, according to Organización Cultiba:
In Mexico, 789,996 hectares of sugarcane fields were harvested during the 2020/2021 Zafra, according to data from Canadesuca.
Unlike some of the other large sugar producers, such as Brazil, where sugar producers own and operate the plantations that supply them with sugar cane, most sugar producers in Mexico purchase cane of sugar used in the production of thousands of farmers in the vicinity of each mill.
According to the Cultiba Organization, the high fragmentation of land ownership is considered a persistent inefficiency in the Mexican sugar market.
With an estimated 182,379 sugarcane growers, each grower has an average of 4.3 hectares of arable land.
Sugarcane cultivation is carried out in 15 of the states of Mexico, in 267 municipalities and through 49 mills throughout the country, although the states of Veracruz, Jalisco and San Luis Potosí generate approximately 61% of the total national production.
