Crop Protection South America Monthly Report

Brazil should soon secure clearance to ship corn to China, which is expected to become one of the world's biggest importers of the grain, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture said. At the end of April 2012, China has agreed to import Argentine corn. Brazil is the second corn exporter to China in South America.

As GM corn from Brazil will enter the Chinese corn market officially in the near future, the increasing demand from China will boost the planting of corn in Brazil, especially the GM corn. Actually, it was the first time for Brazil to promote GM corn varieties in its domestic area in 2011. This action brought the large success for Brazilian corn planting, greatly increasing its corn production in 2011. According to USDA, the production of corn in Brazil increases to 67.00 million tonnes in 2011 from 57.40 million tonnes in 2010. In 2011, GM corn varieties' proportion has reached 83% of total corn varieties in Brazil, nearly 50% higher than that of 2010.