Brazilian companies approved to ship corn to China

Over 100 Brazilian traders, cooperatives and facilities have been granted permission to export corn to China after the latter's general customs administration (GACC) published a list sent by the Brazilian government naming the storage and shipping units that meet phytosanitary requirements.

A document published by GACC and seen by Argus lists 136 facilities, which are approved to ship corn from Brazil to China.

Terminals granted approval include:

• At Santos: Tgg, Teg, Cutrale, T12a and T39
• At Paranagua: Interalli, Cargill, Rocha, Bunge
• At Itaqui: Amaggi, Viterra

Brazil's agricultural ministry sent the list of approved facilities and traders earlier this week. Traders have since been waiting for GACC to officially divulge the list received from the Brazilian government and begin to grant import licences, agriculture defence secretary of the agriculture ministry, Jose Guilherme Leal, told Argus.

Last month, Argus had access to a previous list from Brazil's agriculture ministry that contained 45 approved entities, belonging to 16 different companies, but only three of them were port terminals, which caused frustration among market participants.

In all, about 600 units have requested certification from Brazil's agriculture ministry. The inspection work continues and a new list with freshly accredited units will be released between December and January, Leal said.

Brazil signed an agreement with China in May on sanitary requirements related to grain imports, including updating quarantine rules. The agreement originally planned for exports to begin in the 2022-23 crop year, but in August it was agreed that there would be no need for on-farm controls for corn that had already been harvested during the 2021-22 crop year.

From that moment, Brazil's agriculture ministry began inspecting the units of companies that had applied for the necessary phytosanitary certificate to export corn to China. China requires that Brazil prove cargo is not contaminated by any of the 18 quarantine pests listed in the protocol signed between the two countries.

By Alessandra Mello and Claudia Jackson