November 19, 2007

Brazil congressmen lobby in favor of GMO corn imports

A group of Brazilian congressman want to pressure the government Biosafety Agency, CTNBio, to permit transgenic corn imports as chicken feedstocks dwindle, according to business daily Valor Economico on Friday (November 16, 2007).

The Agriculture Ministry's Chief Secretary, Silas Brasileiro, told congressmen from the rural districts to pressure the Presidential Palace to convince CTNBio to at least temporarily permit transgenic corn imports to northeastern ports.

Chicken and hog producers in the northeast, far from the country's main corn producing regions, are running out of feed at a time when demand for pork and poultry at reaching their Holiday peaks, the newspaper reported.

Brazil does not yet allow for the commercial sale of transgenic corn.

According to the National Commodities Supply Corp, or Conab, the government has 1.3 million tonnes of corn in official storage. Those stocks are geared for small livestock producers and cooperatives.

The private sector, meanwhile, has an estimated 6.6 million tonnes of corn left, with new crop corn of around 8 million tonnes from Mato Grosso not getting harvested until late February. That puts December and January stocks low. Local prices are rising, and so are animal feed costs as a result.

Moreover, high international corn prices have Brazil exporting around 10 million tonnes of corn this year, compared to under 5 million tonnes on average over the last two years, according to grain brokerage Cerealpar.

Brazil is currently planting corn for the 2007-08 season, and recently finished harvesting a winter crop of around 14.7 million tonnes, according to Conab.