USA Sells 71,000 Tons of Rice to Brazil, Highest Volume Since 2003

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The US government reported on Thursday, October 1st, the sale of over 71,100 tons of rice to Brazil, according to data from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), at a time when Brazilians are resorting to atypical product sourcing to tackle record prices for the product.

With Thursday’s record, the total amount recorded by the USDA of American rice sold to Brazil reaches 108,300 tons this year.

The total volume is now the largest USDA rice sale to Brazil in a year since 2003, when Brazilians imported a total of 486,4500 tons, according to US government data.

Last week, ABIARROZ, the sector’s association told Reuters that the United States should account for the majority of supply on purchases recently made outside Mercosur countries, since Brazil has implemented a tariff-free quota of 400,000 tons until the end of the year.

Within Mercosur, imports do not pay tariffs, which range from 12 percent for processed rice and ten percent for paddy rice.

In addition to 100,000 tons of unbleached rice from the United States, ABIARROZ has estimated purchases of 70,000 tons of the product from India and 18,000 from Guyana.

Despite imports, rice prices remain high. The price of the 50 kg bag of rice in Rio Grande do Sul, the largest Brazilian producer, reached R$104.29 on Wednesday, close to an historical peak, according to Esalq/USP (College of Agriculture of the University of São Paulo). The record, R$106.24 per bag, was registered by the CEPEA on September 23rd.

Prices are high after increased consumption of the product during the pandemic, with growth of approximately five percent in 2020 estimated by the CONAB (National Foodstuff Supply Company), to almost 11 million tons.

This occurred after Brazil began the year with relatively low stocks, at their lowest levels since at least 2014, according to the CONAB.

Concurrently, Brazilian exports increased by over 70 percent in the first eight months of the year to 1.15 million tons, with a favorable exchange rate helping to reduce domestic supply, according to government data, while imports – mostly from neighboring countries – declined by 17 percent in the first eight months of the year to 417,400 tons.

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