São Paulo – Brazil has more than doubled maize exports to the Arab nations in the accumulated result for this year, in terms of revenues. According to figures disclosed by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the country had revenues of US$ 236.2 million with sales of the commodity to the Arab world from January to November this year, against US$ 119.5 million in the same period last year. The growth was 116%.
The main buyer of Brazilian maize in the Arab market, this year, was Saudi Arabia. Purchases totalled US$ 84.8 million. But the country reduced imports when compared to the same months in 2008, when expenses with Brazilian maize totalled US$ 101.5 million. The second main buyer, in turn, was Morocco, whose purchases rose US$ 24.9 million in comparison with January to November 2008, reaching US$ 58.4 million in the same period this year.
The third main buyer in the Arab world also posted a significant increase in imports. It was Algeria, with expansion from US$ 8.8 million in the first eleven months of last year to US$ 43.5 million in the same months in 2009. The fourth main client was Yemen, with US$ 17 million and greater purchases – having grown from US$ 6.3 million – and the fifth was the United Arab Emirates, with US$ 15.3 million. Last year, the Emirates had not bought maize from Brazil.
In volume, Brazil exported to the Arab world a total of 1.5 million tonnes of maize between January and November this year. In the same period last year, sales totalled 549,600 tonnes. That means that in terms of volume, the increase in sales to the Arab country were even greater than revenues.
Brazil should produce 32 million tonnes in the next maize crop, 2009/2010, whose final sowing period is scheduled for January. The volume represents a significant contraction over the previous crop, in 2008/2009, when the harvest totalled 33.6 million tonnes, according to the National Food Supply Company (Conab). The fact that 2009 was a year of low prices for the commodity resulted in lack of producer interest, and they turned to soy. The cultivated area should cover 8.3 million hectares, 9.8% less.
Maize prices are still falling and expectations are for a super crop in the United States in 2010, causing prices to drop even further, according to Conab forecasts.
*Translated by Mark Ament
