Brazil to open up for US GMO corn imports

Brazil will open its doors to US corn imports as the failure in the country’s second corn crop safrinha raises concerns about domestic feed availability, the country’s agriculture minister Tereza Cristina said Monday.

Speaking at a live-streamed event, the minister said news about the entry of GMO US corn into Brazil would be released this week.

The type of GMO corn produced in the US is not produced in Brazil and its import needs to be authorised by the country’s Biosecurity National Technical Commission (CTNBio).

The Brazilian corn market is expected to be particularly tight this year due to the failure in the not-yet-harvested safrinha that is responsible for over 70% of the country’s corn output.

Declining expected yields due to late planting and dry and warm weather conditions led the Brazilian food agency Conab to downgrade the country’s corn production estimate by 10 million mt.

This has raised concerns among Brazilian feedstock consumers about the lack of feed affecting livestock production amid rising meat exports and domestic consumption.

“There is not going to be a lack of corn, though prices will remain high,” Cristina said.

In the first 5 months of the year, Brazil has imported around 821,000 mt of corn, up by 78% on the year.

Almost all imported volumes came from Paraguay and imports from the US have historically been negligible, with only the North Northeast region of the country likely to accommodate volume.