Grupo Mensa, the Mexican flour tortilla giant, has refused to intervene in grain prices, amid a wave of blockades and farmer protests over the collapse in food prices. The company, headed by Altagracia Gomez, the current point of contact between the business community and Sheinbaum’s government, on Tuesday explained to its investors that it accounts for approximately 1% of total corn consumption in Mexico, so it does not set and does not intend to set corn prices. With the boiling countryside as a backdrop, the company has come out to defend its cost and income structure, ensuring it pays a competitive price to its farmers and prioritizes national supplies over export grains. He explained that the prices paid by Mensa are higher than international prices because they include a premium for national corn that currently amounts to about a thousand pesos per ton over the international reference, resulting in a 24% increase over the price of imported yellow corn used in other sectors.
The company stated that it primarily purchases local corn and only saw the need to import grain to ensure supplies in regional scarcity seasons. He explained, “The company’s corn imports in recent years represent less than 4% of total purchases and less than 0.1% of the size of the national crop. In the last six years, the company purchased approximately four million tons of national white corn and imported only 69,815 tons.” In addition, he explained that the cost of corn flour represents only 35% of the price of tortillas in Mexico, and the rest of the costs are made up of other ingredients in which Mensa has no involvement.
Amid complaints from Mexican producers demanding the government’s guaranteed price for corn, Mensa detailed its sources of income: 51% comes from dough and tortilla manufacturers. Manufacturers of toast and corn crackers came in second place with 34%, and the rest was distributed among groceries, self-service stores and exports. In addition, the company participates in tenders with federal and local governments for the supply of packaged flour. According to the company, its sales of corn flour to government agencies decreased from 7.8% in 2020 to 4.2% this year.
The Mexican flour giant acknowledged the situation that Mexico’s corn producers are experiencing due to falling global prices and the strengthening of the exchange rate, and stated that it has direct marketing agreements with farmers in the states of Jalisco, Michoacan, Guanajuato, Sinaloa and Campeche. “Mensa is confident that through dialogue and good faith on the part of all actors in the value chain, a long-term solution will be found to address the problems faced by corn producers in Mexico,” he concluded.
The company’s announcement takes place in the midst of agricultural unrest. This week, thousands of farmers staged road blockades and protests to demand better prices for their crops and more security guarantees during their journeys from Claudia Sheinbaum’s government. The demonstrators are demanding that 100% of the production cost be covered, in addition to 30% of the profit, but the government is offering to pay for only 50% of the production. This Tuesday, after a chaotic day of failed negotiations, farmers blew up the negotiating table with federal authorities and threatened further mobilization in the streets.
The controversy over low maize prices has affected Mensa. Some protesting organizations assert that the two large tortilla flour companies, Maseka and Minsa, did not participate in the negotiating tables with the government to guarantee the purchase price of their cobs, and denounce that the Minister of Agriculture, Julio Berdegui, and Altagracia Gómez herself, only care about the interests of the industry, but not those who produce the corn.
At the beginning of the month, Mensa heiress Altagracia Gomez distanced herself from the controversy over grain prices. In one of the forums, Sheinbaum, a businesswoman and main interlocutor with the business world, stated that the greatest pressure on the market for this food comes from the livestock sector, the main consumer of corn in Mexico. He pointed out during his participation in a forum in Guadalajara, “The matter is not limited to Mensa or Masica only, and it is not limited to flour mills or the milling industry. The largest buyer in Mexico is the livestock industry, and by giving it to livestock, as it is one of the main foods for fattening animals, they set the price much higher than the international price.”
Grupo Minsa, founded in 1993, is the second-largest producer of maize flour, after Gruma, which operates the Maseca brand. Mensa currently owns six maize flour factories in the country. In the third quarter of this year, the company announced sales of 122 thousand metric tons, which represents a 10% increase compared to the same period in 2024, an increase resulting from the increase in the volume of tons placed within the so-called private and export markets. The company reported in its financial report a decrease in cost of sales, mainly due to the decrease in the cost of corn, the main input in the corn flour industry. Mensa derives approximately 90% of its income from the production, marketing and sale of nixtamal maize flour.