Brazil increased the quota for duty-free imports of wheat by 250 thousand tons

Wheat suppliers from the United States and Russia will likely benefit from an additional tariff-free quota of 250,000 metric tons put in place by Brazil, the president of the Brazilian Wheat Industry Association (Abitrigo) said on Thursday.

Brazil has an annual wheat quota exempt from the Mercosur Common External Tariff – a set of tariffs on goods coming from outside the trade bloc – of 750,000 tons of wheat.

That has practically been filled for 2024.

On Wednesday, the Brazilian government decided to exempt an additional volume of 250,000 tons, valid until the end of 2024, because its own harvest has only just started and the harvest of Argentina – a traditional supplier – has not yet started.

Abitrigo said countries outside of Mercosur including the United States and Russia could meet that additional demand.

“What was approved should be used by some mills that will still have to import before the arrival of the Argentine and Brazilian harvest,” Rubens Barbosa, president of Abitrigo, said in an interview.

Until August, Brazil imported 4.56 million metric tons of wheat, an increase of around 65% compared with the same period last year, government data showed.

Most of this came from Mercosur member states Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

Taking advantage of the tariff exemption from the quota, until August, Brazil imported 501,000 metric tons from Russia, 256,600 metric tons from the United States and 35,000 metric tons from Canada.

Brazil’s wheat harvest is estimated to yield 8.8 million metric tons, which would be an increase compared with the previous cycle. However, it also exported relevant volumes.

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Tags: Brazil, wheat, imports, restrictions