China approves Brazilian sorghum imports

China has approved the import of Brazilian sorghum and the first shipment will likely be shipped before the end of the year, a Brazilian agriculture ministry official told Reuters, Zerno On-Line reported. The alternative to American supplies will arrive sooner than expected.

China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) has sent a letter to Brazil informing it that Brazilian sorghum has been approved for import, Eduardo Porto Magalhaes, coordinator of international phytosanitary inspection and certification at Brazil’s agriculture ministry, said in an interview on Tuesday.

The decision follows a Chinese delegation’s visit to Brazil in early August, which included meetings with Brazilian sorghum producers. China first announced plans to import Brazilian sorghum during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Brazil in November 2024, marking an upgrade in bilateral relations.

“The next steps are to register Brazilian companies, exporters and producers who plan to export to China. We have already completed the first stage of registering these companies and will now provide them to China,” Magalhaes said.

The first shipment of sorghum could be sent from Brazil to China within the next 60 days, Magalhaes said.

Representatives of the Brazilian farming group Abramilho, which grows sorghum and corn, said in August that they had no plans to send the current crop to China.

The agreement comes at a time when relations between China and the United States, which has traditionally supplied large volumes of sorghum to the Asian country, have deteriorated sharply amid the imposition of trade tariffs and U.S. sorghum exports to China have fallen sharply. According to official statistics, U.S. sorghum exports to China from January to July 2025 totaled just 82,323 tonnes, down 97% from the same period a year earlier.

Brazil’s sorghum production has doubled in just a few years, reaching 4.4 million tonnes in the 2023/2024 season, according to estimates from Conab, the country’s national agricultural agency. However, Brazilian sorghum exports still account for less than 1% of the global market.

Sorghum producers are hoping that interest from China could boost demand for their crop. “I believe that export demand will boost sorghum plantings in Brazil,” Pedro Ottoni, director of the International Maize Alliance and a sorghum grower who hosted the Chinese delegation, told Reuters. “Brazil will be the world leader in sorghum production,” he said.

Tags: China, Brazil, sorghum