MEXICO CITY (Bloomberg) -- Mexico, the world’s second-biggest corn buyer, may boost imports of the grain to a record as dry weather harms crops in central and northern regions, the president of the National Confederation of Farmers said.

Mexico, where corn is a staple used in tortillas and hot drinks, may import 12 million metric tons of yellow corn this year, Cruz Lopez Aguilar, president of the Mexico City-based body, said on Sunday in a telephone interview.
“Potential Mexico imports are significant, even scandalous,” Antonio Ochoa, a vice president for Latin American commodities at R.J. O’Brien & Associates LLC., said today in a telephone interview from Chicago.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates Mexico will import 9 million tons of corn in the year starting Oct. 1, up from 7.4 million tons in the current marketing year.
Mexican farmers are experiencing the worst drought in seven decades, which has harmed about 7 million hectares (17.3 million acres) of crops, or half of all Mexico’s planted area, Lopez said. Output won’t be enough to make feed for livestock or to supply chemicals makers that use the grain.
“We may have just enough corn to cover the food supplies,” Lopez said.
Lowest Rainfall
Average rainfall during July was the second-lowest since the wet season of 1941, according to the National Water Commission. The lower rainfall pattern is expected to continue during the 2009 summer, Mexico’s official meteorological center said in an Aug. 12 report. About 80 percent of the current crops depends on rainfall, with the remainder being irrigated.
Most imports will probably take place at the end of the year, Lopez said.
Corn futures for December delivery fell 0.25 cent to $3.29 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, after earlier rising 1 percent.