Will Bayer’s ‘short corn’ change the Mexican corn industry?

Most news stories on the Mexican business climate have not been very positive lately.

Hardly a day goes by when we are not inundated with stories from across Mexico with concerns about judicial reform, water scarcity, inflation, infrastructure, security issues and more (to name a few). It’s easy to get pessimistic with these headlines and, I would argue, miss the bigger picture of what is really going on in the country.

With that in mind, I have taken up the task of interviewing CEOs of key companies throughout the country to hear first-hand how they see the market. At the forefront of every conversation is this question: Given the current political and economic climate, how should our MND readers feel about the economic prospects of the country?

Recently, I met with the CEO of Bayer Mexico, Manuel Bravo, to find out more about what the company is up to in the country. Below are 10 important takeaways from our conversation:

1. Bayer has been in Mexico for 123 years and has three separate divisions: Pharma, Consumer Health and Crop Science (agricultural products).
2. Bravo, a proud Mexican, is the first non-European CEO to lead the company in Mexico in its over 120-year history in the country.
3. Bayer has doubled its net sales in Mexico over the past five years, with revenue now exceeding 1.5 billion euros. The company is confident that its double-digit growth rate in Mexico will continue over the next five years.
4. Bayer has over 5,000 employees in Mexico in eight plants and 15 R&D centers across many states nationwide.
5. The company has invested over 300 million euros over the past five years in Mexico in capital expenditures (plants and equipment), new technologies and innovations.
6. Bayer recently announced that its Lerma plant near Mexico City will be one of just three R&D “centers of excellence” globally for its Consumer Health division.
7. Research by the company shows that nine out of every 10 Mexican households currently have a Bayer product in their home. The Pharma division in particular has a major focus on developing and commercializing treatments in three areas of significant need throughout Mexico: kidney disease (Bayer has a new Type 2 diabetes drug that helps target kidney disease), prostate cancer and menopause.
8. Products and services from Bayer’s Crop Science division are already being used by 3.5 million farmers in Mexico. The company has set a goal of helping over 5 million farmers in the country by 2030 with its vast array of agricultural offerings in both products and services.
9. An interesting new initiative by Bayer to reach more small farmers is called “Better Life Farming” in which the company places small stores (kiosks) in rural communities to make it easier for farmers to get help. Bayer already has over 100 of these kiosks nationwide, with 500 possible in the next several years. A fascinating fact about these stores is that over 70% are run by women. When I asked Manuel why, he said that in many of these communities, the women take care of the money of the family and in many cases, the men are working abroad and so it is the women who are doing the farming.
10. Mexico is the global center for a new revolution coming soon in corn. After 15 years of studying how to shorten the life cycle of the plants to accommodate areas with water scarcity, Bayer’s “short corn” was launched in Mexico four years ago.
    • This year, the second generation of short corn was planted and the results are impressive. The corn grows to 2.2 meters high compared to nearly 4-meter-high conventional corn. The corn husks grow at 1 meter high versus 1.8 meters high in conventional corn. The most exciting part: 120,000 plants can be grown in one hectare of land versus 90,000 plants of conventional corn.
    • The result is an ultra-high-density corn that grows significantly more corn per hectare with the same amount of water and fertilizer. The team is working hard towards an even more ambitious target of 150,000 plants per hectare soon in future generations. Manuel confidently and proudly told me that I would soon be seeing Mexican short corn in my native Wisconsin as well as around the world.

It was impossible to not leave the meeting excited and inspired by Manuel as he shared what the Bayer team is up to in Mexico. The company is creating good jobs, investing in new technologies, helping rural farmers and women entrepreneurs and addressing key health issues affecting the country, all while developing a new type of corn that could revolutionize the crop globally.

The team at Mexico News Daily is honored to be your front-row seat to Mexico — helping educate, inform and entertain you by bringing you a complete picture of what is happening in the country.

Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for over 27 years.