MEXICO CITY, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Mexican corn growers are reaping the benefit of U.S. reliance on ethanol and a dip in the U.S. corn crop, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
"I've never seen prices this high in my lifetime," Mexican grower Victor Manuel Amador Luna told the Times.
The newspaper said corn prices have jumped 86 percent over the last year, thanks to the demand of corn-using ethanol plants in the United States.
U.S. agriculture officials told the Times that global corn supplies may fall to their lowest level in three decades. While that may be good news for growers, it's bad news for corn buyers, including livestock producers, food processors and consumers, the Times said.
It's not clear how long the increased demand will last. Some economists told the Times the corn boom should go on for years, but others were skeptical.
"Any significant drop in oil prices could cause a shakeout," Pat Westhoff, program director at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri, told the Times. "You could see a lot of corn with no place to go."
