26
DOMÍNIO AMERICANO
American domain
Exportação de sementes de milho para semeadura
* De janeiro a julho de 2016 –
Fonte:
Agrostat/Mapa
2014
2015
2016*
Valor (US$)
Peso (kg)
Valor (US$)
Peso (kg)
Valor (US$)
Peso (kg)
Venezuela
18.659.960
4.787.071
21.407.326
4.388.022
18.487.826
6.205.136
Paraguai
18.080.667
5.024.353
18.390.542
6.294.449
3.684.494
1.241.126
Estados Unidos
3.903.567
1.517.116
12.356.036
5.010.398
4.129.218
1.681.936
Colômbia
2.989.506
877.685
6.560.218
1.641.826
4.056.819
1.332.862
Equador
2.327.696
604.558
4.388.044
1.543.681
1.135.045
646.537
Sub-total (cinco países)
45.961.396 12.810.783
63.102.166 18.878.376
31.493.402 11.107.597
Total
55.945.021 15.884.129
71.370.873 21.150.183
34.327.242 15.166.550
One of the most grown species, besides
soybean and wheat, seed corn continues
on a rising trend in Brazilian agriculture. In
a decade, sales of the product went up by
more than 80%, from 9.363 million sacks in
the 2005/06 growing season to 17.053 mil-
lion sacks in the 2015/16 growing season. All
numbers are released by the São Paulo As-
sociation of Seeds and Seedlings Producers
(APPS). A sack contains 60 thousand kernels
of corn, the amount needed for one hectare.
“Adding the volume traded to the seeds
that were not sold, we estimate the volume
offered “, explains agronomist Cássio Ca-
margo, executive director of the APPS. In
the past five growing seasons, seed corn vol-
umes increased consecutively, with 16.251
million sacks in the 2012/13 growing season
and 21.007 million sacks in the 2016/17 sea-
son. Total production remained at approx-
imately 370 thousand tons in the 2014/15
crop year, according to the Brazilian Associa-
tion of Seeds and Seedlings (Abrasem).
The percentage of seed sold varies
from one crop year to the next. Over the
past years, the lowest percentage, 70.01%,
was registered in the 2010/11 growing sea-
son, and the highest percentage, 88.51%, in
2007/08. This percentage seems to be more
related to domestic demand than piracy
problems. However, according to Camargo,
not even corn, which relies on the control
of hybrid seed, is free from the illicit trade.
There are well organized and properly struc-
tured companies that conduct maize variety
trials in some regions in the Country.
Minas Gerais is the leading producer of
seed corn in Brazil, with a share of 40%. The
second largest volume (35%) is produced in
Goiás. The other producers are as follows:
São Paulo (10%), Bahia (5%), Mato Grosso
(from 3 to 4%), Paraná (1%) and the Feder-
al District (1%). Abrasem’s list also includes
smaller production volumes in other states
in the 2014/15 growing season.
TERRAIN
APPS executive director Cás-
sio Camargo has it that the volume of seed
exported is very small, in light of the sec-
tor’s potential. Shipments amounted to 250
thousand sacks from a total crop of 17.053
million sacks traded in the 2015/16 crop
year. “We have every condition to export
tropical and subtropical hybrid seed corn,
but excessive red tape prevents us from in-
creasing our foreign sales”, he declares. The
quality of the seed is one of the requisites
that puts the Country in a position to com-
pete in the international market. Camar-
go advocates less red paper internally. “The
suggestion is for making the processes easi-
er. Nothing justifies such an awful number
of obligations”, he notes.
The seed industry raked in revenue of
R$ 5 billion in the 2015/16 crop year, ac-
cording to Camargo. The value was up 5%
Innovations for a
better world.
Líder mundial em seleção óptica.
As selecionadoras Bühler utilizam
as melhores tecnologias para
remoção de sementes defeituosas
e outros materiais.
SANMAK B
Maximiza a germinação
no campo e padroniza
os lotes de sementes.
Faith in
corn
In 10 years, sales of
seed
corn
went up
by more than 80% and
revenue amounted
to R$ 5 billion in
the 2015/16 growing
season, up 5%
from the previous period, when it reached
R$ 4.5 billion. The average price per sack of
seed corn soared from R$ 278 to R$ 293.
“Expectations are running high for the
2016/17 growing season, with positive per-
spectives for the winter crop of the cereal,
and prices are remunerative”, he informs.
The lack of credit lines for the farmers is
one of the major consequences of the pres-
ent economic downturn in the sector.
Overall balance
For the 2015/16 growing season,
according to Embrapa Corn and Sorghum,
the companies deal with a total of 477
seed cultivars, 284 transgenic and 193
conventional. The balance shows that,
compared to the quantity of seed launched
in the market the previous year, only one of
the varieties experienced a reduction. “The
introduction of management practices that
provided for a higher level of responses and
safety of the cultivars placed in the market
by the industry, constitute an assurance for
the growers of an excellent performance
of the grains”, observes Israel Alexandre
Pereira Filho, Embrapa researcher.
