In the early days of the pandemic, with borders shut down, there was some concern about the future of trade with Mexico. Reporter Frank McCaffrey spoke with a prominent grain trader about the current situation.
According to Octavio Garcia, “Trade has been good. There’s a lot of demand for commodities in Mexico. Apparently, they’ve been a little drier than us, and thank God we’ve had enough. I mean, we’ve had an okay crop here in south Texas because further north, their drought situation was worse than ours.”
He says that workers at his business have been busy getting certain items ready for Mexico, and he adds that there are popular products in the nation.
“We’re selling them corn. We’re selling sunflower. We’re sending soybeans and milo.”
Garcia tells us that trade with Mexico, a nation that is just a few miles away from his facility here, will never go away. In fact, he believes it will only get better in the post-COVID era.
However, there have been some challenges: “It’s all about logistics, where everybody’s short-handed and everybody doesn’t get enough. Things are behind, everything’s running behind... There’s a lot less trucks than there were in the past, but we’re still getting trucks of our stuff into Mexico.”
He anticipates many more years of getting his product into the nation.
Related:
Battling Drought: How a farmer in Mexico says this is the worst he has seen in 30 years
Potato Protections: groups call for USDA to resolve trade issues in Mexico
What kind of danger do immigrants’ trespassing cause for Texas ranchers?
