Peru Corn concentrates in Argentina, and Cargill LIMITED is buying

Martín Garay

Published June 2026

1. The headline number behind Peru corn 2026

Peru imported $1.04B in corn in 2025, up 14% from $906.16M in 2023. Volume ran near 4783.0 million kg at an average landed value of $0.22 per kg. 115 importers cleared at least one shipment in 2025, and 53 of them stayed active into 2026. That second number is the working pool a sourcing or sales team actually meets at the table today. The structural question is whether that pool is concentrated in a few hands, fragmented across a long tail, or sitting in the middle. The next four signals answer that.

2. How concentrated the importers field is

The top three importers captured 62% of 2025 corn value. Adm Andina, Seaboard Overseas and San Fernando sit at the head of that group. Ranks 4 through 20 added another 38%, and the long tail of 95 importers accounted for the remaining 1%. A category where the top three hold above 50% behaves like an oligopoly: the leaders set the price and the tail discounts to win volume. A category below 30% at the top behaves like a fragmented field: every shipment is contestable and the buyer or seller meets a new counterparty every quarter. Peru corn at 62% sits in the concentrated band. That changes how a counterparty plans access: relationships matter more in concentrated markets, price discipline matters more in fragmented ones.

3. Who picked up share between 2023 and 2025

Six exporters inside the 2025 top twenty grew faster than 20% against their 2023 base. Viterra Agriculture led the move, expanding from $8.24M in 2023 to $21.06M in 2025. The growers also include Corporacion Productiva, Bunge, Hortus and Cargill Americas. This is the cohort that picked up share inside an otherwise stable headline. For a buyer they signal capacity coming online. For a competing seller they signal where new wallet share is moving. Separately, 58 importers who recorded zero corn value in 2023 cleared shipments in 2025. New entrants tend to undercut on price for the first two years before normalizing, which is one of the moves the price chart reveals.

4. The geography behind the flow

Peru's corn flow source from a handful of countries that account for most of the value. Argentina led with 94% of 2025 imports, ahead of Brazil at 2%, Mexico at 2%. A market with one dominant origin countrie is brittle: a tariff move or a logistics disruption against that country reroutes the whole flow inside a quarter. A diversified mix gives both sides shock absorbers. Active counterparts on those routes include Cargill LIMITED, Seaboard Overseas LIMITED, Cargill and Bunge, among others.

5. The three price bands inside the average

The 2025 average landed value ran at $0.22 per kg. That headline hides three working bands. 68 importers cleared above 10% of the average, signaling a premium tier where quality, specification, or relationship justifies the markup. 18 cleared inside the plus or minus 10% band where most of the volume sits. 29 cleared below 10% of the average, the discount tier that newcomers and large logistics-led players tend to occupy. A buyer who only meets the headline price walks past three different cost realities.