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Brazil keen to increase corn exports to China — but in no rush
Reuters – Brazil and China are in talks to boost corn trade between the two nations, though raising exports to the Asian nation at this time is unfeasible due to inter-harvest supply shortages, Abramilho, a corn producers’ association, said on Dec. 16. Only a fraction of Brazil’s corn sales went to China last year, or

Brazil importing soy, food staples as prices soar
The surprising move is part of ongoing global food supply chain disruptions
Reuters – Brazil, one of the world’s largest agricultural producers, is importing food staples including soybeans due to a rise in domestic prices, President Jair Bolsonaro said in a video posted on social media. Brazil’s turn to imports is the latest disruption to the global food supply chain as soybean prices hover around four-year highs,

JBS vows to monitor whole cattle supply chain’s impact on Amazon
Packer plans to move against cattle 'laundering'
Sao Paulo | Reuters — JBS SA, the world’s top meatpacker, said Wednesday it plans to combat destruction in the Amazon by monitoring its entire supply chain for deforestation by 2025, as pressure mounts from environmentalists and investors. Brazilian meatpackers are facing increasing criticism that beef production is fueling deforestation in the Amazon, where cleared
Key Brazil port resumes loading grains after COVID-19 case halted ops
Reuters – Loading of grains and other products at the port of Paranagua, Brazil’s second largest, resumed normally on May 27, after a case of COVID-19 paralyzed work in berth 214 for about 24 hours, according to the port authority. Soybean loading at that berth was halted after a crew member of a vessel tested

Chinese demand pushes Brazil beef prices to record high
A significant number of local processors can now export to China
Reuters – Brazil’s famous barbecue is getting more expensive as Chinese demand is increasingly swallowing up the country’s beef supply, pushing Brazilian cattle prices to a record high. China’s hunger for foreign meat has shot up as an outbreak of African swine fever has decimated its domestic pig population and has sent it looking for substitutes. Chinese imports of

Lack of rain puts Brazil corn crop at risk
Soy planting delays will mean a very tight window to plant ‘second corn’
Reuters – Delays in Brazil’s soybean planting due to scarce rainfall may affect sowing of the country’s second corn crop, which is planted after the oilseed is harvested and represents about 73 per cent of the South American output. “There is a lot of risk for the (corn) crop,” Antonio Galvan, head of the Mato Grosso state grain growers’ association,

Brazil farmers push traders to end Amazon soy moratorium
Sao Paulo | Reuters – Brazilian farmers plan to start a campaign next week to end a ban by trading firms on buying soybeans from parts of the Amazon rainforest cleared after 2008, leaders from a major farmer group told Reuters, citing support from President Jair Bolsonaro. The push to end traders’ voluntary “soy moratorium” — one

Brazil expected to introduce tariff-free wheat import quota from 2020
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil is expected to introduce a tariff-free wheat import quota of 750,000 tonnes per year starting from 2020, the president of the country’s wheat industry group Abitrigo, Rubens Barbosa, said on Tuesday. Brazil announced the opening of the tariff-free wheat import quota earlier this year in connection with President Jair

Brazil judge suspends use of glyphosate herbicide
Sao Paulo | Reuters – A Brazilian judge has suspended the use of products containing the agrochemical glyphosate, a herbicide widely employed for soybeans and other crops in the country. A federal judge in Brasilia ruled on Friday that new products containing the chemical could not be registered in the country and existing registrations would

Coffee may profit more than soy in Brazil’s new farming frontier
Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, Brazil | Reuters –– Farmers tending vast, flat soy and cotton fields that spread as far as the eye can see in northeastern Brazil are finding that coffee crops might provide higher profits in the country’s agricultural frontier. More coffee farms are being developed in the western part of Bahia state, which
With roots going back to 1925, each weekly issue of the Manitoba Co-operator contains production, marketing and policy news selected for relevance to crops and livestock producers in Manitoba.