Maize Exports by Country 2024

Due to the numerous uses for maize around the world, this crop is a valuable cereal grain, grown for food and industrial purposes. Thanks to innovative uses for maize in industry and a growing global population, maize has an export compound annual growth rate of 36.3%.

About Maize

Originally a crop grown in the New World, maize production has spread around the globe. In Australia and the United States maize goes by the name corn.

This cereal grain requires relatively warm temperatures for growth and cannot abide freezing weather or drought. Crop yields depend highly on rainfall during the growing period, and excessively dry weather can ruin a harvest.

Most producers plant this crop after the last frost for harvest in the summer, depending on the variety. Some types of maize, such as field corn, stay in the field longer and farmers harvest them in the late autumn or early winter.

Uses for Maize

Maize has numerous applications for people and animals. Animals consume dried maize. Even the plant can serve as fodder after drying. Human food uses include fresh maize, popcorn, meal, cornstarch, corn syrup, and bourbon whiskey. These applications account for a small amount of the maize grown and exported. Other applications of maize are within the industrial chemistry field. Ethanol is a fuel source that can combine with gasoline to reduce pollutants from vehicles. Additionally, maize can serve as a component of biofuel for producing energy.

Maize Global Demand

Globally, maize ranks as the 86th most traded product, out of 1,217 in 2021. This trading volume means that maize comprised 0.25% of trade in all goods globally that year.

Some of the world's top importers of maize in 2021 included China, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea. These nations and many other importers of maize relied on the production of corn in exporters, such as the United States and Argentina.

Top Maize Exporters

While the United States long topped the list of maize exporters, in 2023, Brazil took this top spot. During the 2022 to 2023 trading year, Brazil exported 53 million metric tons of maize. The United States placed second that year with exports of 42.5 million metric tons.

Rounding out the top five exporters of maize in 2023 were Argentina, South Africa, and Ukraine. While the countries that rank in the top for exporting maize deliver a significant amount of corn to the world, exports not in the top 11 still shipped out 131.365 million metric tons of maize.