April 29, 2009

      
Moscow is likely to give Brazil a larger share of its beef market, and the Latin American country may import more wheat from Russia in return, according to a Brazilian agriculture ministry official.

Russia was reviewing its beef import quota as the EU had not supplied its allotted quantity, said Celio Porto, foreign relations secretary at the ministry.

This favours Brazil, and Russia also said it may do something with pork, Porto said, adding that Russian officials had not announced anything about the redistribution of the beef quota.

Porto said that Russia did not ask Brazil to import more Russian wheat but that the ministry had made the offer as a gesture of good faith.

Brazil's wheat milling association Abitrigo is calling on the government to drop the 10 percent import tariff on wheat from outside the Mercosur trade bloc due to production declines in Argentina, which supplies most of Brazil's wheat requirements.

Porto said the government is negotiating with the milling sector to purchase some cargoes of Russian wheat.

The government agreed that the tariff for a certain quota of wheat should be dropped, but it would like to have a commitment by the mills to import a certain quantity of Russian wheat, said Porto.

But Russia is restricted in the quantities of wheat it could supply Brazil due to limited spare logistical capacity at its end, said Porto, adding that the maximum amount Russia could ship to Brazil would be 200,000 tonnes.