JBS imports corn for the first time in 2019

One of Brazil’s largest meatpackers, JBS SA, has ordered its first 2019 shipment of corn feed from Argentina, for its Santa Catarina meat plant. According to an industry source, JBS resorted to cheaper corn from across the border to avoid higher local costs caused by Brazil’s poor infrastructure and the government-set minimum shipping prices resulting from last year’s truckers’ strike. Moreover, the proximity of Argentina and Paraguay to Santa Catarina is another incentive to import from abroad rather than Brazil’s grain belt. DataLiner data shows the company purchased animal feed several times from Argentina last year:

JBS SA corn (HS 1005) import from Argentina | 2018 | WTMT

According to Reuters the first shipment should bring some 30,000 tons of corn from Argentina. In 2018, the company imported the equivalent of 5 shipments of between 30,000 tons and 35,000.

The following Secex graph shows Brazil’s corn import trend for the last ten years from its neighboring countries: 

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