CropLife Retail Week: U.S.-Mexico Corn Dispute, Ethanol Exports, and Farm Bill Updates

Eric Sfiligoj and Lara Sowinski discuss the resolution to the US-Mexico biotech corn issue, ethanol exports to Canada, and another extension for the Farm Bill.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, editor. CropLife here and here again with Lara Sowinski. Lara, we have made it through the holidays and into 2025. Happy New Year to you and all of your family members.

Lara Sowinski: Thank you very much. Same to you too. Happy New Year.

ES: Hard to believe. I can’t remember how many times I’d watch, like, old science fiction movies and, you know, things and then read stories about, you know, the future. And it was like 20, 25 always seemed like so darn far away. And, you know, the flying cars and, all the, all the colonies that were, you know, in Mars and, and Saturn’s moons and I’m like, okay, we’re not quite that far, but we have gotten to the year date at least.

So but nobody ever predicted the internet. So this is kind of cool. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Maybe we should take that back. Let’s go back. I could do without the hula hoop. Dresses they used to wear in The Jetsons. Okay, I you know, those things always freaked me out. So. Cool. Yeah. So, hey, before. Before we go on too far, I want to put something to bed.

Of course. You know, for the last few years, we’ve been to, various videos where we’ve talked about this on running dispute between the US, particularly the corn growers who grow biotech corn. And then they, exported to Mexico because Mexico actually had put a ban on those, those imports. They did not want biotech grown us corn coming into their country.

And of course, the U.S corn growers were objecting to that. And that whole dispute ended up going before a dispute council under the, U.S., Mexico and Canada Agreement accords. And, just before the new year, we found out that the dispute council that was looking at this question ruled in favor of the US corn growers, saying that the Mexican ban was based more on emotion versus science, and it violated the, agreement, the USMCA.

So therefore, the Mexican ban is no more. And US, biotech corn can continue to be imported into the country without any interruption. So this was very, very good news to our friends. I know international corn growers and various other growers associations were putting out statements, basically saying this was a good, great win for U.S corn growers.

Yeah, indeed. I saw the news item as well. I think it’s worth noting that, all seven of the legal claims the US had against, Mexico’s rule, were, shut down essentially. So now, next up, the dispute panel issued its final report. To the parties on December 20th, 24. So under the USMCA rules, Mexico has 45 days from the date of the final report to comply with the panel findings.

Also worth noting, from January through October 24th, the U.S exported $4.8 billion worth of corn to Mexico, which, ranks as the US’s largest export market for corn. So yeah, very important ruling there. So good news on that front. Yeah. And thank you for the segue. Speaking of good news on the corn grower front, actually got a report where they were talking.

USDA was mentioning the fact that, they were talking about ethanol exporting in 2024, and they talked about our friends in Canada to the North. I guess the Canadian government has a mandate in place where basically they’re supposed to be increasing renewable fuel sources and usage, particularly e-15, between now and 2030. And we found out that in 2024, the US exported 655 million gallons of ethanol into Canada, which was an 11% increase from 2023.

So, hopefully, fingers crossed. Again, the more ethanol that is being produced in the US will make its way up north and help out our friends in Canada to, to meet their government mandate when it comes to renewable fuel. So again, the news for corn growers and a lot of friends right now for sure. Yeah. And, you know, I know it’s gosh, it feels like forever since we’ve done a retail could, but, I know we did talk, prior to the holiday break about, the farm bill being extended, but, for those of you that maybe were off on a faraway island for the last few weeks, congressional lawmakers, did approve an extension of the farm bill, with 10 billion worth of economic aid for farmers on the bill is extended. Through March 14th. And, yeah, you mentioned, the proposal to allow e, 15 ethanol fuel sales year round. I know that’s part of that, too. The bill also includes 100 billion for disaster aid requested by President Biden, with 10 billion, to be set aside for one time farm economic payments.

And this was important to agriculture. Zippy Duvall, president of American Farm Bureau Federation, said in a statement. For many farmers, the disaster relief for provided, will be the difference between planting for another year or going out of business. The farm bill extension also offers a short reprieve and gives lawmakers some breathing room to pass a modernized farm bill that will provide risk management support.

So again, for good through March 14th. So let’s hope, we could kind of get things firmed up and not have to worry about what’s, what’s around the corner. So you know yeah, I know this industry loves certainty. So more certainty we can provide going into the growing year the better I think it’ll be for everybody. So yeah.

LS: Yeah I you know this time of year obviously, you know looking at all the forecasts and outlooks for 25 and stuff. Still the wild card and I was reading just today something from Rabobank, their agri commodity markets outlook for 2025. Their top concern, is, you know what may or may not happen with tariffs on imports, particularly, you know, talking about Usmca.

So our trade partners China, Mexico and Canada, and we kind of get into a tariff war there with the May being for soybeans in particular. So yeah, we’ll have to keep an eye on that. But, you know, some good news to kind of start us off at least. Yeah, I was going to say I mean, in one sense, it’s great to have all this new positive news to report on.

It’s not normally what we do here on retail week, unfortunately, but it’s good to start out the year this way. And fingers crossed we’ll continue to have lots more good news to share as we go forward. So yeah. Yeah. I’m making a, deliberate effort and a concerted effort as, as it were, to try and hit a little more optimistic this year.

And, and I will just, a little plug for our, February issue of CropLife. I’m working on a fungicides story, and, had the pleasure of talking recently with Gail Stratman, regional technical service manager for FMC. And, yeah, we had a really great talk and talking about some, things that are making a comeback, if you will, or rearing their head, but, some new products and new strategies at the same time.

That show real promise. So, look forward to, finishing up that article. And I know we have a pretty jam packed February issue. The problem is, I know we’re planning to start showcasing our Awards of excellence winners. And that February will feature a cover story on, Nancy Ball-Norman, who was our educator and researcher, winner for Awards of Excellence.

So that’ll be the cover story. So, yeah, lots of good stuff coming up. Yeah, I know it’ll be. It’ll be fun. I know I’m working on my stuff and mostly focusing on, spring fertility, but that will also be in there along with micronutrients and other categories. We normally cover this time of year as everybody gets ready to kick off the growing season.

And of course, that’ll be in the print edition of CropLife in February. But, stories from that issue will start to post on February 1st, so look for those on Croplife.com.