Where are Mexico's customs brokers?

Every commercial shipment that crosses into or out of Mexico is cleared by a customs broker, an agente aduanal or agencia aduanal licensed by Mexico's customs agency (ANAM). Brokers are authorized for specific customs offices, so where they sit says a lot about how Mexico's trade moves.

This analysis covers every establishment whose main activity is customs brokerage (SCIAN 488511) in INEGI's May 2026 business directory.

Nearly half work at a border crossing

We grouped each office by the municipality it sits in: border crossings (the land ports with the United States, Guatemala, and Belize), seaports, and everything else, which is mostly airports and the inland customs offices of the industrial cities.

1,234 offices (46.7%) are at border crossings, 662 (25.1%) at seaports, and 744 (28.2%) at airports and inland customs. Mid-size and larger agencies, with 11 or more employees, are spread more evenly: 399 at the border, 314 at seaports, and 307 inland. Port agencies tend to be larger: 47% of seaport offices have 11 or more employees, against 32% at the border, as they clear container traffic for importers all over the country.

Five cities hold 46% of offices

Nuevo Laredo alone has 373 customs brokerage offices, 14% of the national total, more than any other city. It sits across from Laredo, Texas, the busiest land port in the United States. Tijuana (276), Manzanillo (239), the Mexico City municipality that is home to the city's international airport (Venustiano Carranza, 161), and the port of Veracruz (157) complete the top five.

The list follows Mexico's trade routes: the northeast truck corridor (Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros), the California border (Tijuana, Mexicali), the Pacific container ports (Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas), the Gulf ports (Veracruz, Altamira), and air cargo in Mexico City. Suchiate, in Chiapas, is the main crossing with Guatemala.

By state

Tamaulipas has 651 offices, a quarter of the country's, because it has both the Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, and Matamoros crossings and the port of Altamira. Baja California, Mexico City, Colima (Manzanillo), and Veracruz follow.

What this means if you need a broker

• Hire at the crossing your freight uses. A broker files the export or import declaration (the pedimento) at specific customs offices. A broker based in Nuevo Laredo is the natural choice for trucks crossing at Laredo; one in Manzanillo for containers through that port.
• The big clusters give you options. At Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana, or Manzanillo you can compare dozens of agencies. At smaller crossings there may be only a handful.
• Size isn't everything. Many offices are small: 1,020 of the 2,640 have 11 or more employees. A small agency with deep experience in your product and crossing can serve you better than a large generalist.
• A listing isn't a license. The data counts businesses that describe their main activity as customs brokerage. Ask every broker for their license (patente) number and check it: How to find a customs broker in Mexico explains how.

About the data

Counts are establishments (offices) from INEGI's national business directory (DENUE), May 2026 release, with customs brokerage as their main activity. One agency can have several offices; the 2,640 offices belong to about 1,575 separate legal entities, counting those whose legal name is listed. Ports and crossings are assigned by municipality, so an office in a border city counts as a border office even if it also handles other customs. The directory doesn't record licenses: being listed doesn't mean a broker holds a current patente.