Brazilian dairy sector pushes for probe into Mercosur powdered milk imports

The Brazilian production sector has increased pressure on the federal government to address the decline in profitability of the national dairy chain. The main complaint, once again, is the rise in powdered milk imports from Mercosur countries such as Argentina and Uruguay.

Last Thursday (11/6), representatives of the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA) and the dairy sector met with the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade (MDIC), Márcio Elias Rosa, and the Secretary of Foreign Trade of the Ministry, Tatiana Prazeres.

At the meeting, short- and medium-term support measures for dairy producers were discussed to address the immediate crisis, the MDA said. “Later, there will be support with technical assistance to improve production costs, ease sector indebtedness, and expand consumption,” said Minister Paulo Teixeira in a statement.

Producers are complaining about MDIC’s rejection of a request to open an anti-dumping investigation on Mercosur’s exports to Brazil. The analysis was opened based on arguments submitted by CNA in December 2024. At the time, the organization demonstrated that powdered milk from Argentina was 54% cheaper in Brazil than in Argentina. In Uruguay, the difference was 53%.

In August, however, MDIC announced that it would not proceed with the investigation. According to the Ministry’s interpretation, dairy producers could not request anti-dumping measures; only powdered milk producers — that is, the domestic industry — could. The Ministry began considering that raw milk is not similar to powdered milk.

“This unprecedented decision denied producers access to the only applicable trade defense tool and resulted in a 28% increase in powdered milk imports in September,” CNA said. The organization reacted and submitted new arguments, but the process has not moved forward.

According to Agrostat data from the Ministry of Agriculture, imports of powdered milk from January to September exceeded 133 thousand tonnes, of which 70 thousand tonnes came from Argentina and 47 thousand tonnes from Uruguay. The volume is close to the total imported in 2024, when purchases totaled 186 thousand tonnes, but below the volume for the first nine months of last year, at 137 thousand tonnes.

See below a history of Brazilian powdered milk exports starting in January 2022. The chart was prepared with DataLiner data:

Brazilian Powdered Milk Exports | Jan 2022 to Sep 2025 | TEU

Source: DataLiner (Clique aqui para solicitar uma demo)

Last week, CNA president João Martins said that the crisis in Brazil’s dairy production is “deep and unfair” because of the “unfair importation” of powdered milk. “This means loss of income in rural areas, threatened farms, families without support, and a real risk of Brazil losing its dairy production base,” he said in a video.

Martins asked the Vice-President of the Republic and Minister of MDIC, Geraldo Alckmin, to accept CNA’s request for the application of anti-dumping duties against neighboring countries. At Thursday’s meeting, MDIC told sector representatives that it will issue a new position on the request “in the coming weeks,” but did not indicate whether the opinion will meet Brazilian dairy producers’ demands.

This week, the issue was discussed at a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies. CNA pointed out that while the government evaluates the possibility of an investigation, imports remain high and harm the dairy market for producers. The outlook is for successive price drops paid to farmers through the end of the year, which will further pressure the already negative margins of the activity, said CNA technical advisor Guilherme Dias. “Anti-dumping is the only alternative to reduce the impact of powdered milk imports from Mercosur countries,” he stated.

The president of the Brazilian Association of Milk Producers (Abraleite), Geraldo Borges, said at the public hearing that the sector is facing a delicate moment. “We need a real adjustment stop, involving urgent actions such as controlling imports, either with an anti-dumping measure or other action, government purchasing programs, and national campaigns to promote the value of milk and its derivatives to increase consumption. It is also essential to think about medium- and long-term structural measures that ensure competitiveness and sustainability of the national dairy chain,” he said.

Recently, the MDA created the Family Farming Dairy Chain Working Group (GT-Leite) to coordinate emergency and structural support measures for the sector. “The dairy chain is one of the most important in family farming. This group will be a space for joint construction, listening to those at the production level and turning family demands into concrete actions that guarantee income, stability, and value for family dairy farmers,” said the Secretary of Family Farming and Agroecology, Vanderley Ziger.

In the private sector, one of the alternatives being studied is the creation of a Brazilian milk futures market to provide producers with greater price predictability. The contract would be for refrigerated raw milk, in reais per liter, with monthly maturity and financial settlement using São Paulo as a reference and contract size of 8,000 liters per contract. “The idea is to place this instrument on B3,” said Guilherme Dias from CNA.

Source: Arena de Notícias

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