Facing bankruptcy risk, Sonora farmers ask for guaranteed prices

“What is required is a guaranteed price of 7,050 pesos per ton for crystalline and flour wheat and a price of 6,915 pesos per ton for white corn,” farmers stated in a letter sent to the head of Sader, Victor Villalobos.

Sonoran producers said that prices on the Chicago Stock Exchange are “lower and more detrimental than last year,” the document states.

Wheat (grain) production in Sonora in 2023 fell to less than two million tons (one million 994,573 tons), according to data from the Agri-Food and Fisheries Information Service (SIAP).

“This year the situation could become more serious, as estimates predict that production could fall even further and reach only between 1.2 and 1.5 million tons,” say the producers.

Among the producers who signed the letter are the Union of Rural Production Societies of Southern Sonora (USPRUSS); the Union of Agricultural and Industrial Credit for Irrigation Colonists (UCAICISA); the Association of Farmers’ Organizations of Southern Sonora AC (AOASS) and the Association of Farmers of the Yaqui Valley (AAVYAC), among others.