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Higher domestic prices hindered
exportsin2016andhighcostsencouragedaviculture
andpigfarmingtoseekalternatives
in five crop years.
Underpressurefromtheavicultureand
pig farming sectors, whose production
costs were affected the most by the high-
er corn prices in Brazil, in 2016, the For-
eign Trade Chamber (Camex) approved,
in April 2016, the request by the Ministry
of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Sup-
ply (Mapa) for exempting from the import
tariff all corn imports from countries out-
side the Southern Cone Common Market
(Mercosur). This exemption was for amax-
imum volume of one million tons. Never-
theless, thanks to the competitiveness of
the neighboring countries, a huge part of
the volume imported in 2016 came from
Mercosur countries.
Furthermore, the government inter-
vened in the corn market through auc-
tions conducted by the National Food
Supply Agency, with the aim to boost corn
supplies to chicken and pig farmers. In all,
25 auctions were conducted in 2016, ne-
gotiating 945 thousand tons of corn. In
spite of everything, suchmeasures proved
inefficient in curbing the high prices over
the entire season.
n
