Leticia Balino, who runs a tortilla outlet in Mexico City, says many people are complaining about the rising price of corn tortillas, which went up 14 percent in the past year. The price increase is, in part, linked to soaring corn prices.

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MEXICO CITY — Soaring international demand for corn has caused a spike in prices for Mexico's humble tortilla, hitting the poor and forcing President Felipe Calderón's business-friendly government into an uncomfortable confrontation with powerful monopolies.

Prices for corn tortillas jumped nearly 14 percent over the past year, a move Mexico's Central Bank Gov. Guillermo Ortiz called "unjustifiable" in a country where inflation ran about 4 percent. Ortiz pinned the blame on companies monopolizing the market and blocking competition.

"We clearly have a problem of speculation," he said.

Economists also blame increased U.S. production of ethanol from corn as an alternative to oil. The battle over the tortilla, the most basic staple of the Mexican diet, especially among the poor, demonstrates how increasing economic integration is felt on the street level.

"This is direct evidence of the way globalization is affecting all walks of life in Mexico and all over the world," said David Barkin, an economics professor at the Xochimilco campus of the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City.

The federal government's antitrust watchdog announced this week it was investigating allegations that companies were manipulating corn prices and making deals to limit the supply of corn to boost prices of tortillas.

Officials from the world's largest tortilla maker, Monterrey, Mexico-based Gruma SA, were not immediately available for comment. The company has 89 tortilla plants worldwide and sells tortillas in the U.S. under the Mission brand.

Big retailers, mostly supermarkets, have kept tortilla prices steady at around 55 cents a kilogram, or about 2 pounds, but in Mexico City, some shops are selling them for 90 cents a kilogram.

For low-income Mexicans, who earn about $18 a day on average, the increasing prices have hit hard. According to the government, about half of the country's 107 million citizens live in poverty.

"When there isn't enough money to buy meat, you do without," said Bonifacia Ysidro as she wrapped an embroidered towel around a foot-high stack of tortillas to cart home.

Tortillas, she added, "you can't do without."

Ysidro said she paid $2.27 — about a sixth of her household's combined daily income — for enough tortillas to feed her family of six.

"If I don't have that much, I'll have to buy less," she said.

Leticia Balino, who runs a tortilla shop behind the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said many are complaining, especially those with large families.

"They say, 'How is it possible that the price could rise so much in such a short time?' " she said.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said Friday that ethanol plants and foreign buyers are gobbling U.S. corn supplies, pushing prices as high as $3.40 a bushel, the highest in more than a decade.

Nationwide in the United States, supplies of corn are expected to drop to 752 million bushels, a drop from last month's forecast of 935 million bushels and a steep decline from last year's supply of 1.967 billion bushels.

Responding to the outcry, Mexican lawmakers are demanding the government impose price controls, but Calderón instead has vowed to watch out for tortilla sellers who gouge consumers. He also asked his agriculture secretary to import corn from anywhere.

"I don't care if it's brought from thousands of kilometers away, the most important thing is that this (shortage) is not used as an excuse to raise prices," he said Thursday.

Mexico's Economy Department said it will expand its white-corn quotas under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement to drive down tortilla prices, while the federal consumer-protection agency has launched an inspection campaign to ensure tortilla sellers post their prices.

On Thursday, the Federal Competition Commission said it was looking into allegations the major companies were price gouging and reaching deals that were contributing to the shortage.

"If we detect monopolistic practices, we could impose fines" of up to $6.4 million, the agency's director, Eduardo Perez Motta, said in a news release.

The agency said that since 2004 it has applied sanctions in six cases against anticompetitive practices in the corn and tortilla markets. Last year, the agency blocked Gruma's takeover of Mexican corn processor Agroinsa, saying it would have given it too much control over the market.

Many consumer goods are expensive in Mexico but historically, government subsidies and price controls have kept basic foodstuffs within reach of even the poorest Mexicans.

The government eliminated its decades-old subsidy for tortillas in 1999 just as cheap corn imports were rising from the United States under NAFTA.

Mexican consumers also are coping with higher prices for other staples. The cost of white bread and fresh fruit and vegetables all rose more than inflation in 2006, according to the central bank.

The tortilla increase outpaced inflation and minimum-wage increases of about 4 percent for the past year.

Grains traders forecast tortilla prices will rise by 20 to 25 percent during the first quarter of 2007.

That prospect worries Ysidro, who said: "If it goes higher, what am I going to give my children?"