Mexico Transport Cost Indicator Report, February 2026

What happened? Landed Costs of Grain to Mexico Fell From Second to Third Quarter 2025Mexico is a long-time major importer of U.S. grain.The competitiveness of U.S. grain exports (corn, soybeans, and wheat) to Mexico and elsewhere depends on low transportation and landed costs.U.S. grain is transported to Mexico, either across the land border or by sea to Mexican ports for inland distribution.This article examines the costs of transporting U.S. grain to Mexico over land to various U.S.-Mexico border locations (land route) and by sea to Veracruz (water route), tracking changes over time (table 1). 1Quarter-to-Quarter Transportation Costs.From second quarter 2025 to third quarter 2025 (quarter to quarter), total transportation costs rose for all grain by water routes, reflecting increases in barge and ocean freight rates.Barge rates rose in response to reduced shipping capacity, as water levels sank to critical lows in the Mississippi River.Rising ocean freight rates reflected strong movements of bulk items, especially imports of iron ore and coal by China and sustained demand for grain shipments out of the U.S. Gulf (Grain Transportation Report (GTR), November 27, 2025).Also, quarter to quarter, total transportation costs fell for soybeans and wheat shipped by land routes, reflecting lower rail freight rates. 2 Railroads reduced wheat rail tariff rates in June (GTR, June 26, 2025) and soybean rail tariff rates in September (GTR, September 4, 2025, second highlight). 1 The water route for shipping wheat to Mexico changed this quarter to better reflect the majority composition of wheat shipped via the water route.Before this quarter, the water-route costs were for Kansas hard red winter (HRW) wheat shipped by rail to the U.S. Gulf and then shipped by ocean vessel to Mexico.Starting this quarter, the water route reflects the costs to ship soft red winter (SRW) wheat from Illinois by barge to the U.S. Gulf, and from there, by ocean vessel to Mexico.According to USDA's Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) data, the United States exported 3.9 million metric tons of wheat to Mexico in 2024.Of that total, 39 percent was HRW wheat (of which over 90 percent was exported to Mexico overland via rail) and 34 percent was SRW wheat (of which 52 percent was shipped to Mexico by ocean vessel from New Orleans).2 Water routes typically involve truck transportation to barge to oceangoing vessel, or truck to rail to oceangoing vessel.