Mexico’s Government Buys Domestic Milk for 7.7m Beneficiaries

Under Mexico’s Guarantee Prices scheme, the government buys milk from small and medium-sized producers in several dairy regions. The purchasing arrangement removes intermediaries and provides a formal sales channel, with payment made at the farm or at a collection centre.

The programme’s direct-payment system gives family-run production units access to cash from milk sales. The supplied information says farmers can use that liquidity to reinvest in animal health, balanced feed for their herds and basic improvements to milking facilities.

To handle the milk collected, the federal agency operates and continually modernises a network of collection centres and cooling tanks in strategic areas. The facilities maintain the cold chain, measure total solids—including fat and protein—and check the safety of raw milk before it is sent to processing plants.

At those plants, the milk is pasteurised and fortified with essential micronutrients under stated quality standards. The resulting product contains iron, zinc, folic acid and vitamins A, C and D.

The social-supply programme sells the milk at a general subsidised price of 7.50 pesos per litre. A preferential rate of 4.50 pesos per litre applies in more than 500 municipalities classified as having high or very high marginalisation.

The product is intended for children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, older people and people with disabilities. The supplied information describes its nutritional objectives as addressing chronic child malnutrition, combating anaemia and increasing the intake of high-biological-value protein. The direct purchases are presented as securing the supply of milk for 7.7m beneficiaries.