Argentina will pay for imports from China in yuan
It is cheaper for the Argentine industry to import Brazilian soybean than to purchase it locally, according to Dante Romano, professor and researcher at Universidad Austral. “Super harvest” in Brazil caused international prices to decrease to US$ 40/tonne. Argentine production suffered a 50% decrease during the current harvest. (Agribusiness and Food Center)
Government wants to raise US$ 1.47 billion by adding three more commodities to the “agricultural dollar”: sorghum, sunflower and barley. With this inclusion, the agricultural dollar now has almost 30 products. Meanwhile, another special exchange rate, the soybean dollar, should continue until the end of the year, aiming to raise approximately US$ 5 billion. So far, the soybean dollar has raised US$ 1.438 billion. (Central Bank of the Argentine Republic)
Argentina will pay for imports from China in yuan, Chinese commercial currency. From May, Argentina will be able to pay the equivalent of US$1 billion in imports directly in yuan. Objective is to preserve international dollar reserves, according to Sergio Massa, minister of economy. (Ministry of Economy)
According to the president of the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Paulo Pires, farmers are waiting for announcements regarding funding for the winter harvest. “Farmers are very resilient and want to turn the page on the past two droughts… it is essential to have available resources to finance winter crops”, said Pires. (FecoAgro/RS)
Embrapa and Agrorobótica develop an artificial intelligence platform that allows the digitization of the soil and of agricultural activities, that enables access to precision agriculture and the sale of carbon credits in the international voluntary market. The technology allows measuring, reporting, verifying and trading carbon in agriculture. (Embrapa; Agrorobótica)
Masterboi announces authorization for exports from its second slaughterhouse to Singapore. “In Singapore there is a market for Halal and non-Halal products… and a high consumption of pork and poultry”, explains Márcio Rodrigues, director of Foreign Trade at Masterboi. (Masterboi)
Agrodefesa from the State of Goiás trains veterinarians to respond in the event of a case of avian flu. 80 professionals will be trained, including state agricultural inspectors and auditors from the Ministry of Agriculture. (Agrodefesa – GO)
Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, will resume the National Biofuels Policy – RenovaBio. Program’s objective for 2023 is to avoid the emission of 37.47 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. (Ministry of Mines and Energy)
Pig ranchers in the South region accumulated losses during the 1Q of 2023, absorbing a 10.4% decrease in the value of live pigs in March. Production costs fell by 3.85% in the period. (Embrapa Pigs and Poultry)
Antonio Walker will be the new president of the National Society of Agriculture between 2023 and 2025. Walker was minister of agriculture during the government of Sebastián Piñera, from 2018 and 2021. (SNA)
Declared agricultural emergency in the Province of Concepción because of cases of avian flu in three poultry facilities in the rural area of Chequén, that led to the slaughter of 488,000 birds. (Ministry of Agriculture)
Launched Public Procurement Council to comply with the Public Procurement Law. Legislation requires that at least 30% of public food purchases come from small local farmers. Law was in force in 2020, but to date it has not come to fruition. “We are going to start a work plan with dates for each institution to commit to public purchases,” said the minister of agriculture, Cecilia López. (Ministry of Agriculture)
Sugar production should reach 6.25 million tonnes in the 2023/24 season, compared to 6.047 million in the previous season, with an increase of 3.3%. (USDA)
Country keeps not importing meat from Brazil and Argentina, even after allowing tariff-free imports. Only three tonnes of meat from Argentina were imported in the 1Q of 2023, with no imports from Brazil. Despite being self-sufficient, Mexico had a record of beef imports in the first three months of the year, 99% of which came from the USA. According to Juan Carlos Anaya, general director of Grupo Consultor de Mercados Agrícolas, Mexico is not importing Brazilian beef because of high logistics costs, and because the imported product is not competitive when compared to the local product. (National Customs Agency of Mexico)
Fresh mango exports record in the 2022/2023 harvest. 249,314 tonnes of mango were shipped, an increase of 7.3% compared to the previous harvest. (Peruvian Association of Mango Farmers and Exporters)
Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation should allocate US$ 286 million for the management of water resources in agriculture and assistance to regions that are passing through an emergency situation because of rainfall and floods. (Midagri)
Mandatory vaccination against avian flu will begin on May 2nd. 10 million doses were purchased for the vaccination of day-old chicks and adult chickens. Vaccines were purchased from Mexico and should arrive in Uruguay next week. All animals are expected to be inoculated after 20 days. (Ministry of Agriculture)
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