The bitter taste of sweet contraband
It seems like the script of a dramatic soap opera, but no, it is the harsh (and sugary) reality: Mexico is being sweetened with smuggled sugar. Yes, as you read it. While we complain about the price of avocado, tons of tons of illegal sweetener are slipping through the southern border as if they were in line for a Bad Bunny concert. The businessmen in the sector, more worried than your mother when you don’t answer her WhatsApp, are crying out loud.
It turns out that every year, about 40 thousand tons of this white gold make a clandestine trip from Guatemala to our territory. And it’s not that they come in an elite operation with super-sophisticated methods. No, sir. They pass through two well-known points: by land, through Frontera Comalapa (super discreet), and by raft on the Suchiate River, because what better than a raft ride for an illegal shipment, right?
A crisis that is no small thing
Lorenzo Pale, a man who knows more about the subject than we do about memes, put the numbers on the table. And wow, those are heavy numbers. In total, there are 700 thousand tons of sugar —yes, you read correctly, SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND—, between legal and illegal, that arrive from Central America, plus another 1,300 tons of high fructose. This entire sweet army has achieved the impossible: bringing down the price of sugar in the country in a crisis not seen since we wore bell-bottoms 20 or 25 years ago.
“We are in talks with Economy and Agriculture to stop this,” said Pale, with a patience that not even that of a saint. Basically, the fight is because the tariff for this sugar to enter legally is so low that it is almost laughable. It’s like giving a fine of $10 pesos for parking in a prohibited place; Obviously, everyone is going to do it.
To put it in a millennial perspective: in Chiapas, those 40 thousand tons of Chueca sugar represent 13.3% of what the entity’s two mills produce. I mean, it’s no small thing. It’s as if 13% were taken from your salary to give it to someone who does the same job as you but cheaper and, they say, of lower quality. Fair? Not at all.
The marks of drama
Here even brands have names. Gilberto Ocaña Flores, another expert on the subject, fearlessly points out one of the protagonists of this melodrama: the sugar “Don Justo Cabal”. Legal in Guatemala, but here he walks around without paying taxes as if he were an influencer at a free event. A kilo of this product is $15 pesos, while Mexican sugar Zucarmex costs $19 pesos. People, in their struggle to save every last peso, buy the Guatemalan one. The result? A great business where everyone wins… except, of course, the local producers.
And as if that were not enough competition, another brand, “Caña Real”, is offered in the Chiapas markets just as flat, next to Zucarmex, as if nothing had happened. The situation is so surreal that it makes for a meme: “When illegal sugar has a better presence in the market than your Tinder profile.”
The authorities, meanwhile, seem to be on another planet. Aquilo Meza Pérez, president of another sugarcane growers association, said it clearly: “The state or federal authority does nothing. We ask that they look at us again on this southern border.” Basically, it is a cry for help from the south, which sometimes seems forgotten like that WhatsApp conversation that you no longer want to answer.
In summary, this illegal trafficking is not only affecting prices, but is putting an entire industry that provides employment and sustenance to thousands of families. It is the classic case where the one who loses is the one who plays by the rules, while others take advantage of the system. A story as old as the trade itself, but with a sweet touch that makes it more ironic.
And you, have you already checked where the sugar you use comes from? Maybe, without knowing it, you are contributing to this gray market that does so much damage. The next time you sweeten your coffee, think that behind that grain of sugar there may be a story of smuggling, rafts and unfair prices. Nice, right?
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