Corn, soybeans and dairy products ranked at the top of U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico in 2020, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported.

After reaching $ 2.73 billion in 2019, U.S. corn exports decreased 1% in 2020, to $ 2.693 million.

Corn was followed by the following agricultural exports: soybeans totaled 1,895 million dollars and dairy products totaled 1,416 million dollars.

In sum, Mexico was the third largest destination for U.S. agricultural exports in 2020, with a total value of $ 18.1 billion.

This represents a decrease of 6% compared to 2019.

Even with a decline in exports in 2020, the United States maintained its number one position in Mexico’s agricultural imports by a wide margin, with close to 70% market share.

On July 1, 2020, the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) entered into force.

Agricultural exports

Exports of soybean meal and soybeans grew $ 22 million and $ 17 million last year, respectively.

The largest decrease in 2020 was a 23% (254 million) reduction in exports of meat products.

Other losses were in pork at 10%, poultry at 9% and dairy at 8%.

Despite these declines, Mexico remained the main market for corn, dairy products, poultry, distillery grains, sugar, and sweeteners and animal fats in 2020.

Drivers

• Deep economic shocks related to Covid-19 in Mexico caused an overall decrease of 6% in imports of agricultural products from the United States in 2020 compared to 2019.
• Lower purchasing power led to declines in US animal protein exports, particularly higher value ones such as US beef grain, which fell 23% to 853 million in 2020.
• Consumers’ preference for lower-priced animal products resulted in smaller declines for US dairy, pork and poultry exports, which totaled $ 1.4 billion, $ 1.2 billion and $ 983 million, respectively.
• US corn exports decreased slightly to $ 2.7 billion due to declining demand for animal feed.
• Declining purchasing power of consumers led to a reduction in demand for higher priced imported fruits such as apples, pears and grapes, and US fresh fruit exports fell 11% to $ 545 million.
• US exports of soybean meal and soybeans to Mexico increased to $ 1.9 billion and $ 665 million, respectively, due to lower availability of international competitors.