São Paulo – The hike of the dollar against the real and a less demanding domestic market are boosting Brazilian maize exports. In the first ten months of this year, foreign sales of the commodity reached USD 3.15 billion, up 13.6% over the same period of last year, according to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (Mdic). From January to October of 2014, the volume reached USD US$2.77 billion.
In volume, exports of the grain also increased and at an even larger percentage, 25.4%, going from 14.2 million tons in the first ten months of 2014 to 17.8 million tons in the same months of 2015, an increase of 3.6 million tons.
“The dollar fluctuation turned the product more competitive”, says the foreign trade advisor of Mato Grosso do Sul state, Aldo Barrigosse, referring to the appreciation of the North American currency against the real in the last five months. According to him, in addition to this, Brazil stands out worldwide in the production of agriculture commodities and has a large and high-productivity maize crop. “Production has been increasing year after year, with a decrease of planted area and an increase in productivity”, said Barrigosse.
The advisor mentions also the smaller domestic market and the stable demand by the external market as factors that are boosting international sales of Brazilian maize. “The maize is in demand worldwide”, he says, about the use of the commodity as input for animal and human nutrition. In the case of the Arab world, according to Barrigosse, the high consumption is for the production of food.
Brazil’s largest maize importer this year until October was Vietnam, with USD 563.7 million; followed by Iran, with USD 510.6 million; South Korea, with USD 252.8 million; Taiwan, with USD 243.7 million; and Egypt, with USD 240.1 million. Vietnam increased its purchases in 33.6% over the same months of last year and Iran decreased in 5.2%. All of the aforementioned increased their imports, South Korea in 4.8%, Taiwan in 4.7% and Egypt in 7.5%.
In the list of importers of Brazilian maize there are more Arab countries, such as Algeria, in 10th place, Morocco, in 11th place, Saudi Arabia in 12th, United Arab Emirates in 15th, Tunisia in 21st, Kuwait in 22nd and Jordan in 23rd, with others lower on the list.
An estimation by the National Supply Company (Conab) expects the 2015/2016 maize crop to produce between 81 million tons and 82.7 million tons, a 2.3% to 4.2% decline over the previous crop. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), which calculates its estimation taking into account the full year and not the crop year, expects an increase of 7.4% for maize in 2015, with 85.7 million tons.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
