Senate approves credit of US$195m for agricultural defense investments

Minister Tereza Cristina (Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply) announced on Wednesday (10/30), during the meeting of the National Council of State Secretaries of Agriculture (Conseagri), the approval by the Senate of a loan of US$195m from Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for investments in the Brazilian agricultural defense system.

“Yesterday I received the good news, after suffering and sweating, that we were finally able to approve a Senate funding of US$195m to help the Brazilian health defense,” she told state secretaries gathered at Mapa headquarters in Brasilia. “It is not a grant, but it is at low interest rates, and this is very important to organize the health system as a whole,” added the minister. “We will now fight in the Ministry of Economy for this money to come (soon).”

Tereza Cristina asked the agriculture secretaries to warn the governors about the importance of the health issue. “We need to work under the same norms. We cannot have two Brazils in sanitation,” warned the minister. “It is up to us to bring income and new investments. We have to think big,” she said, referring to the possibility for all Brazilian states to export their agricultural products, especially to China, Brazil’s main trading partner.

Growth

“We are setting up at the Ministry a China core that will work in a half day and half night time zone to serve them, so we have to deliver,” she said. Tereza Cristina reported that during the meeting in Beijing last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked President Jair Bolsonaro to help solve their problem (animal protein supply caused by the decimation of part of the herd affected by African swine fever).

“He (the Chinese president) asked Brazil to enable more plants to export meat to China; we were able to authorize 25 refrigerators; they want more,” she said. “We can grow a lot more in other chains besides meat, soybeans, corn, and cotton – and not just for China,” added Tereza Cristina. The minister also informed that the Chinese want to import coffee from Brazil. “Help us bring more coffee to China. That’s what I heard,” she reported.

“It’s up to us to be proactive,” warned the minister. “It’s no use thinking that the Chinese need our animal and vegetable protein if we don’t have sanitation. It is no use having good production and good hygiene if we do not answer the questionnaires (sanitary, required for export). We will end up leaving room for others who can fill paper better than we do; help me with that,” she appealed to the agriculture secretaries.

The Senate’s authorization for the Brazilian government to contract up to US$195m in foreign credit operations with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) was published in today’s Official Gazette. The proceeds of the credit operation are intended to partially finance the Agricultural Defense Modernization and Strengthening Program – ProDefesa.

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