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Illinois farmers enjoy profitable rail links to Mexico

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Trump tariffs could push Mexican buyers to South American

corn

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Farmer says Mexican buyers needed: 'it's a competitive

world,'

By Tom Polansek

JACKSONVILLE, Illinois, March 4 (Reuters) - U.S.

President Donald Trump's tariffs on imports from Mexico carry an

outsized risk for farmers in Jacksonville, Illinois, as

retaliation by Mexico could prompt corn buyers in that country

to turn to rival growers in South America.

Mexico, the world's top corn importer, is a crucial market

for U.S. farmers, at a time when grain prices have slumped and

costs are rising for seeds and chemicals needed to produce crops

Farmers around Jacksonville, a city of about 17,000 people,

benefit more than most from Mexican demand. They live near a

grain facility that loads corn onto railcars before it travels

more than 1,000 miles to livestock producers south of the

border.

The farmers drive from up to 60 miles away to make sales to

the facility owned by privately held crop handler Bartlett,

which growers said often pays higher prices for their harvests

than other buyers do.

Trump's new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada

have fed fears Mexico may respond with duties that could reduce

its demand for American goods, such as corn. China already

retaliated on Tuesday against fresh U.S. tariffs, with hikes to

import levies covering $21 billion worth of American

agricultural and food products.

Lower grain prices from reduced shipments to Mexico threaten

all U.S. farmers, though those in Illinois would be hit

particularly hard. About 60% of all corn exports to Mexico were

by train last year, and 40% of those train movements originated

in Illinois, according to U.S. government data.

"We need their markets and I hope that they need us, but

it's a competitive world," said Marty Marr, 70, who farms with

his sons and plans to plant corn on about 2,000 acres near

Jacksonville this spring.

Marr said he worries that tit-for-tat tariffs may prompt

Mexico to buy more corn from South American suppliers and less

from the U.S.

That would be painful. About 36% of total U.S. corn

export commitments are for sales to Mexico in the marketing year

that ends in August, U.S. government export sales data show.

"It's so important that we maintain good relations with

them," Marr said.

Trump's trade policies and tariffs on China during his first

term damaged American farm sales. U.S. farmers never fully

recovered the market share they lost for soybean exports when

China focused tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods in retaliation

for Trump's levies.

Illinois is a top supplier of U.S. corn to Mexico because it

is the No. 2 corn producing state, and a rail hub in Chicago

connects farmers to buyers south of the border.

Overall, about a third of the corn grown in Illinois is

exported, said Collin Watters, director of exports and logistics

for the Illinois Corn Growers Association. By contrast, top

producer Iowa exports about 15% of its corn, according to the

Iowa Corn Growers Association.

"The direct rail access into Mexico, it's a real advantage

for us," Watters said. "But the flipside is that there's a lot

of uncertainty right now."

Jacksonville farmer Dale Hadden, 61, sells corn to Bartlett

during the autumn harvest, when growing supplies generally

pressure prices. Bartlett often offers higher prices than other

handlers for its purchases to supply Mexico on the Kansas City

Southern railway, he said.

"They have the best bid," Hadden said.

Bartlett employees declined to comment at their South

Jacksonville facility, where railcars were parked on tracks in a

long line. The company's website says it is a leading U.S.

exporter of grain to Mexico.

Less than 10 minutes away by car, shoppers in downtown

Jacksonville could hear train whistles blowing while they

browsed at clothing and record stores around a historic square

with a towering Civil War monument.

Residents of the 200-year-old city said they are worried

that tariffs on Mexico and Canada will raise prices for goods

sold in the U.S. Still, they said Trump should have time to

pursue his plans. About 65% of voters in Jacksonville's county

chose Trump in the 2024 election.

"He's trying things that have been very unorthodox but at

least he's not in the same rut doing what everybody is telling

him to do," said Sue Fox, 68, who supported Trump and runs Times

Square Sewing Complex in Jacksonville.

Many farmers said they want to avoid the type of extended

trade disruptions that led Trump to pay them billions of dollars

in aid to offset lost exports to China during his first term.

"That is absolutely not what the farmers want," said Dan

Newton, 64, a farm manager in Jacksonville.