São Paulo – Brazil is donating 5,751 tonnes of rice to four Arab countries harbouring refugees who are in food insecurity situations. A rice exchange auction was held between the National Supply Company (Conab) and growers last Wednesday (12th) in order to stock up product.
According to Conab, 3,536 tonnes of rice will be shipped to the Gaza Strip, in Palestine, 1,226 tonnes will be shipped to Syria, 397.7 tonnes will be shipped to Lebanon, 366 tonnes to Jordan, and 225.7 tonnes to the West Bank, also in Palestine. The shipping should take place on April 15th.
The Conab has informed that the food will be donated to refugee families in these countries. Auctions of this type are provided for by a federal act dating from 2011, which sets forth that the Conab is to donate foodstuffs to families in food insecurity situations in foreign countries.
At the auctions, the Conab offers unprocessed rice to growers, who trade the product in for processed, packed and export-ready rice. The deal is advantageous for the government because donations are made quickly. On their part, growers benefit because they get rice to process and resell. The auction last Wednesday was held in the municipalities of Santa Vitória do Palmar and Pelotas, and product R$ 10.785 million worth of rice (US$ 4.558 mn) exchanged hands.
In February, 600 tonnes of rice were donated to Nicaragua. The choice of countries to which the donations go is based on the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa). The UN agencies give referrals to the Ministry of External Relations, which forwards the requests to the Conab.
Donations can be made as long as they do not detract from programs for supporting Brazilian families in need of food. African and Central American countries and Palestine are eligible. This particular donation to the Arab countries was coordinated by the Unrwa and the Ministry of External Relations, hence the donations’ being shipped to Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
