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Article Excerpt
The first people were made of corn. That is the fundamental fact of life as the ancient Mayans saw it. Now, some of their descendants face the prospect of being destroyed by corn, or by the economics of corn. Since 1996, imports of yellow corn to Guatemala have increased from 248,276 metric tons to 548,000 MT in 2002. 1996 was the year in which fixed import tariffs on corn were replaced with a system that permitted imports with a tariff of only 5%.
The increase in imports brought about by lowering the tariffs has left local producers unable to compete. During the first semester of 2003, yellow corn imported from the US was marketed at US$120 per MT, tariffs and tax included. Comparable corn grown in Guatemala cost US$206 per MT. The result of that difference over time has been that, in 1996, Guatemala produced approximately 227,000 MT. The estimate for this year is about 5,900 MT. The local product has all but disappeared, according to Milton Gonzalez, director of the Coordinadora Nacional de Productores de Granos Basicos (CONAGRAB).
The main consumer of yellow...
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