Brazil ready to import Russian wheat

Brazilian importers are planning to deliver up to 8,000 tons of Russianwheat per week to Brazil, the head of the Brazilian Partrade Imp.Exp. Ltdcompany declared at a press conference in Moscow today. So Russia can startexporting its grain to Brazil this year. According to Partrade's head, themost suitable time for Russian grain exports to Brazil is before November27, 2002, as after this date a new sanitary requirement for grain importswill come into effect in this country.The total volume of wheat consumption was 7m tons in Brazil in 2001. Thetotal volume of annual grain consumption is estimated at 100m tons, a halfof this figure is soy and corn. The businessman pointed out that some 95percent of wheat imports were from Argentina. However, in 2002 theArgentinean government forbade to export more than 20 percent of the totalvolume of Argentinean wheat due to an economic crisis. This led to adecrease in Argentinean wheat exports to Brazil and high prices for thisproduct.The businessman noted that his country had already imported wheat from theUSA and Poland this year. However, the Brazilian party believes that wheatcan also be imported from Russia, Ukraine, France, Italy and Germany.Russian grain exports in 2001-2002 surged by 6 times as compared to the2000-2001 season and amounted to 7m tons, including wheat exports totaling4.3m tons. Analysts forecast that in the 2002-2003 season the wheat supplywill increase by 8m tons as compared to the 2001-2002 season. .