Top 10 U.S. Agricultural Exports to Mexico

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.