Could Mexico really become a net bean importer?/
“Climate trends mean we’re more dependent on imports than ever”

Hi Vicente, it's great to meet you! Tell us how you got into the pulse industry.

I've spent the last twenty years working with the Mexican government, having started out in the private sector on the commercial side of agricultural products. From there I ended up working on the commercial side of beans, specifically on support programs to regulate the production and sale of Mexican beans, mostly working out how producers could achieve more certainty in terms of yield and prices.

I also worked on developing financing programs that would help with the buying and selling, as well as on different instruments like contracts that could ensure a harvest could be sold without too many of the price variations that can often negatively affect producers. Nowadays I'm not 100% dedicated to this area, but I pay close attention to it and work as a kind of independent consultant.

It's been another complicated year for Mexican beans. Talk us through the main issues affecting beans over recent years.

We had three years strongly impacted by climate – it's now become a recurring theme. We have two main cycles in Mexico: the biggest is spring/summer; they get seeded in July and harvested in October/November/December. This crop basically relies entirely on natural rains, meaning the climate conditions are very important for the cycle. 

The second crop cycle is the smaller of the two in terms of acreage and production, seeded in October and harvested from the end of January until April, more or less.

With the first being the most important and also the most dependent on rainfall, Mexico's production has been seriously affected by the changes in climate – we have the seedings as normal, but then the rains don't arrive. Two things can then happen: first is that rains don't arrive on time and you can see reductions in area because the producer anticipates the rains and switches to a different crop. They know that if they seed their beans late, not only will their crop arrive late, but it is also more susceptible to damage from low temperatures.

Another possibility is that you seed your beans, but the rains don't fall at the exact time that your crops need them. For example, the ideal situation is that you seed in July so that the plants are developed and are flowering when the September rains fall – this helps the pods develop and allows them enough water to grow plenty of seed.