It is not only in Brazilians’ bread that Argentine wheat has influence. The product also acts in the balance of trade with the neighboring country, as revealed in the study “The Trajectory of Wheat in Brazil and its Role in Trade and Institutional Relations between Brazil and Argentina”, a compendium published by Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (Conab) . According to the research, the export of Brazilian manufactured goods, especially in the automobile and electric machinery sectors, is strongly related to the importation of grain and its derivatives, which shows a direct relationship between these commercial movements. “One of the reasons for this link is due to the fact that the list of products exported by Argentina is not very diversified,” explains Rodrigo Souza, an analyst at Conab and technical head of the compendium. “Nearly half of what the neighboring country sells to Brazil concentrates on 16 products, wheat grain and wheat flour accounting for approximately 10% of the total acquired in recent years. In the Brazilian case, at least 50 products are needed to reach the same level of sales, due to our great diversity of items for export, “he adds. The conclusion of the study also points to the supply management framework as another important factor influencing the market relationship of this cereal between the countries. The document records that Brazil consumes about 11 million tons of wheat per year, with Brazilian production estimated at 5.4 million tons for the 2018/19 crop, according to the Company’s latest survey. The situation confirms the data of the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex), which shows that, from 1997 to 2017, about 77% of imported wheat originated from Argentina.
Source Universo Agro