June 1, 2004

China To Lift Brazil Soybean Ban Within 10 Days

Chinese authorities will probably lift the ban on Brazilian soybean imports from six trading companies within the next 10 days, the president of the Brazil soy crushers association told the local Agencia Estado newswire Monday.

Speaking after talks in China last week, Carlo Lovatelli, president of the Brazilian Vegetable Oil Industries Association, or Abiove, said the process of revising the ban is in progress, and a solution favorable to Brazil should not take long.

Chinese quarantine authorities banned imports from Louis Dreyfus Asia Pte Ltd, ADM do Brasil Ltda, Noble Grain Pte Limited, Cargill Agricola S/A, Irmaos Trevisan S/A-Ind Com, E Agricultura and Bianchini S/A Industria over the last three weeks after finding small traces of fungicide-tainted seeds in soybean cargoes.

The positive message came on the same day Chinese authorities confirmed they had turned back one more load of 61,000 metric tons of Brazilian soybeans, sent by Cargill from Santos port.

China is the principal destination for Brazilian soybeans, taking 6.1 million tons of local produce in 2003. However, Brazil's industry fears this level of exports will not be repeated should the ban remain.

According to Lovatelli, the Chinese government is being unreasonable in demanding zero contamination of Brazilian shipments - the European Union sets a tolerance level of 0.2%. "If the Chinese demand zero tolerance for seeds from the U.S. and Argentina, they will find problems as well. Zero tolerance doesn't exist."

Lovatelli said it was obvious that the rejection of recent Brazilian soybean shipments was part of a strategy to gain time and renegotiate prices.