R
eflecting the sunrays, the ripe
bunches of rice harvested in Bra-
zil, in the first half of 2017, glitter
like gold meadowlands in times
of plenty. Although being the re-
sult of a year of intensework and represent-
ing thehope for better days, as a compensa-
tion for the work carried out, not all the rice
farmers will be able to transform their in-
vestments into profits. Weather conditions
were favorable during the season.
Brazil started its commercial year in2017,
with466 thousand tonsof riceending stocks,
thankstoimports,ofwhichonly25thousand
tons were in public stocks. The crop in Brazil
is estimated at 12 million tons of rice in the
husk, recovering 1.4 million tons of losses in
2016, when floods in the South reduced the
crop to 10.6 million tons. Total forecast sup-
ply amounts to 13.53 million tons, made up
of the stock, production and imports of 1.1
million tons, 90%fromMercosur countries.
Even so, the relation between offer and
demand will continue tight, seeing that con-
sumption and exports, estimated at 1.1 mil-
lion tons, reach a total of 12.6 million tons. At
the end of the year, surpluses in the Country
should remain only at 932 thousand tons, ac-
cording to projections by the National Food
Supply Agency (Conab), equivalent to 7.4%of
national demand. In themeantime, the glob-
alstockamountsto31%oftheglobalneeds.
Farmers’ income, in the first half of the
year, will suffer pressure from excessive of-
fer. The first cargoes of the crop knocked R$
6 off the price of a sack of rice in the husk in
Rio Grande do Sul (to R$ 44), from Febru-
ary to March 15. Some companies in Santa
Catarina set their purchasing prices of the
crop at R$ 40 for 50-kg sacks. And the im-
ports from Paraguay, Argentina and Uru-
guay reach theBrazilianmarkets at R$39, or
less, because of the Exchange rate, interna-
tional prices and lower production costs in
Mercosur countries. These numbers are rel-
evant because South Brazil and imports are
taken as reference for the domestic prices.
“The scenario is not favorable to exports,
but is attractive to imports, Brazilian pric-
es are high in comparison to international
prices, but low as far as production costs go.
Thepanorama is supposed to improve in the
second half of the year, but many rice farm-
ers cannot wait”, says Tiago Sarmento Bara-
INTHERICEFIELDS,THENEWCROPMAkESUPFOR
THELOSSESINTHE2015/16GROWINGSEASONANDIS
AGUARANTEEOFSUPPLy,BUTABUNDANCEDOESNOT
TRANSLATEINTOHIGHERINCOMEFORTHESECTOR
ta, commercial director at the Rio Grande do
Sul Rice Institute (Irga). In his view, the num-
bers of the croparenormal, but the econom-
ic and sectoral scenario in the first half of the
year exert pressureover themarket.
Daire Coutinho, president of the Rice
Sectoral Chamber, a division of the Minis-
try of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Sup-
ply (Mapa), considers that hope should not
be shaken at themoment. “We are engaged
in conquering newmarkets and investing in
structures to make exports soar. Shipments
to the foreign markets lead to tight supply
and price recovery”, he adds. “Our course
consists in exporting if it comes to keeping
the balance of domestic supply.”
On his part, Henrique Osório Dornelles,
president of the Federation of Rice Growers’
Associations in Rio Grande do Sul (Federar-
roz), says that cash-strapped farmers repre-
sent the majority, and they are just making
ends meet or losing money because of the
scenario at the beginning of the year. “Our
priority attention, as an entity, is focused on
meeting the demand of the majority, which
consists in solving the question of prices,
credit lines, production costs and open new
marketstobalanceofferanddemandandre-
cover prices”, he specifies. In the end, about
theBrazilian rice fields,what glitters themost
is not the gold color of the rice bunches. It is
the eyes of the rice farmers, reflecting hope,
seasonedwithsomedisillusions.
All that glitters
isnot
gold
Harvest recovers the production volume, but not all farmers will earn profits
Inor Ag. Assmann
12
