SAO PAULO: Brazil on Thursday cleared imports of flour from Argentina made with wheat modified genetically to resist drought and a common herbicide, making it the first market in the world to grant such approval.
Brazilian biosecurity agency CTNBio said the unanimous decision applied only to wheat flour. The ruling followed a request by Tropical Melhoramento Genético, a partner of Argentina-based Bioceres SA, which developed the wheat variety resistant to ammonium glufosinate.
Brazilian flour millers have threatened to stop buying wheat from Argentina if CTNBio approved GMO wheat imports from the neighboring country.
"The decision was by a technical agency, but it is important to see what the Brazilian market wants. It looks like consumers in Brazil do not want GMO wheat," said Gustavo Idigoras, head of Argentina's CIARA-CEC chamber of grains exporters.
Some 55,000 hectares in Argentina have been planted with the GMO wheat on a experimental basis, according to company disclosures.
Furthermore, Brazilian stock exchange operator B3 SA will launch a local soyabean futures contract developed in partnership with the CME Group, B3 said on Wednesday, as it aims to improve hedging tools for the grain supply chain in Brazil.
According to B3, the so-called "Futuro de Soja Brasil" contract will have Santos port exporting prices as its benchmark and financial liquidation in US dollar per ton. It will start trading on Nov. 29.
B3 said in a statement sent to Reuters that the new contract comes from an agreement it had signed with the CME Group in 2020 to develop soyabean futures contracts to be traded in both bourses. "Futuro de Soja Brasil" received regulatory approval on late August, it added.
B3 said it will also trade soyabean put and call options based on Brazil's futures contract.
"Over the last few years, soyabean prices in the United Stated and Brazil have detached from each other, making the life of Brazil's supply chain a lot harder," B3 commodities superintendent Louis Gourbin said in the statement, noting that local agents have been resorting to the Chicago exchange to hedge grain prices.
He added that while soyabean markets are international, they rely on regional production and selling dynamics, requiring new local hedging products to be launched. Brazil is the world's largest soyabean producer and exporter.