Frosts in south Brazil to boost wheat imports

Brazilian wheat imports are expected to increase this year as part of the crop has been hampered by frost in the main producing regions of Paraná, which account for approximately half of the country’s production. The information is from the Deral – Department of Rural Economy – of the Paraná Department of Agriculture and Supply.

In a new crop forecast released last Wednesday (07/24), Deral estimates that production will fall almost 16% compared to the forecast released in June, to 2.72m tons in 2019.

According to Carlos Hugo Godinho, a wheat expert at Deral, with 500,000 tons less than expected production last month, wheat imports to Brazil are likely to increase.

“Imports should grow at the same rate as crop failure, perhaps a little less, depending on the quality factor,” he noted.

Brazil is one of the largest importers of wheat in the world and, before the frosts, the federal government had estimated 7.2m tons of wheat imports this year, mostly supplied by neighboring Argentina.

The following DataLiner graph shows the main origins of wheat to Brazil:

The harvest will begin in late August in Paraná, which produced 2.8m tons of wheat last year, as frost also damaged the fields.

Source: Mercopress

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