Importers of Mexico have booked a shipment of 35,000 tons of corn from Brazil, with a ship scheduled to leave the port of Santarém, Pará, on 22 October, the analyst at brokerage and consultancy INTL FCStone said this week. The business, which already appears in reports on the scheduling of ships in Brazilian ports, comes at a time when Mexicans are considering retaliation if threats of tariff increases from the United States to Mexico are confirmed. Mexico is the main destination for US corn, the world’s largest cereal producers and exporters, who have great logistical facilities for their proximity to export to their neighbors. “The burden of Brazil is not common for Mexico, and it has all this discussion about tariffs, it may be a sign of Mexico wanting to show that it can originate elsewhere,” Lucas Pereira, of FCSTone analyst, told Reuters. This would be Brazil’s first shipment of corn to Mexico since January, when a shipment of 33,000 tons was reported in the Ministry of Agriculture’s export statistics. Between 2017 and 2018, Mexicans resorted uncritically to the Brazilian corn market, when Mexico was concerned that Naftha renegotiations could affect supplies from the United States. In the two years, Brazil exported 800K tons to the Mexicans, according to data from the Brazilian government. This compares to 14.7 million tons exported by the United States to Mexico in 2017 alone. An export of Brazilian corn to Mexico would also show how the Brazilian product is competitive against the US, where a record delay in planting has raised prices on the Chicago stock exchange. Such a situation has even led to the export of Brazilian corn to the US, according to recent reports from market players obtained by Reuters.
Source: Notícias Agrícolas