Two weeks after the U.S. government confirmed a new increase in the sugar quota that Brazil can sell to the U.S. market under special tax conditions, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa) defined the additional volume of sugar that 37 mills producing in the North and Northeast regions will be able to export to the U.S. by September 30 of this year.

Published in the Official Gazette of the Union on Monday (15), Ordinance No. 472 discriminates the quotas aswerized to each production unit.Of the plants contemplated based on the results of the previous harvest, 15 are established in Alagoas and 11 in Pernambuco. The other ones work in Paraíba (2); Rio Grande do Norte (2); Sergipe (2) and in the states of Amazonas; Bahia, Bahia, Maranhão; Pará and Piauí (one establishment in each).

Sugar cane

The producers benefited by the measure are all from the North and Northeast regions because a 1996 law, Law No. 9,362, establishes that, in order to stimulate regional development, the export of sugarcane products to markets considered preferred, such as the United States, will be attributed to mills in both regions, "taking into account their economic stage".

This is the second allocation, or apportionment, that the ministry makes this year of the extra volume of the product that Brazil is authorized to sell to the North American market.

United States

In May, the United States had already expressed interest in buying, with differentiated treatment, 35,160 tons in addition to the approximately 144.41 thousand tons authorized in 2021. At the end of July, U.S. officials added an additional 14,430 tons to the initial priority quota.

"This is commonplace. Usually, some of the [producer] countries that receive quotas [from the U.S. government] end up not being able to comply with them. Or [the U.S. authorities] see that they need a little more of the product. We [Brazil] are always consulted if we are able to meet [demand]", explained to Agência Brasil the general coordinator of Cane and Sugar map, Cid Caldas, emphasizing that, added to the main and additional quotas, national mills will be able to export, under special conditions, just over 195,000 tons of sugar to the United States.

"We have been trying to raise the [main] quota by showing that there are countries to which quotas are allocated, but that they do not even have production," Caldas added, noting that in 2020, the Brazilian government even suggested the possibility of zeroing the import rate charged for U.S. ethanol if the United States dispensed with the same treatment for Brazilian sugar.

"Because sugarcane and ethanol are closely linked in Brazil, from the moment the U.S. government is sending us ethanol, it should also open up its sugar market," Caldas said.

Almost two years ago, the Brazilian government announced as a result of negotiations between Brazil and the U.S. that national producers were allowed to export an additional 80,000 tons of sugar that year. The expansion of the initial quota was announced less than two weeks after the Brazilian government raised the u.S. ethanol import quota.

Source: Canal Rural