Brazil Resumes U.S. Wheat Imports

Brazil will resume imports of U.S. wheat on Friday following guarantees that supplies will respect sanitary rules, the Agriculture Ministry said.

In a statement, Agriculture Minister Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes said that U.S. authorities had pledged that shipments will be free of the fast-spreading Canadian thistle weed, or Cirsium arvence.

Brazil banned U.S. wheat imports last Friday after Argentine officials said they blocked a shipment of 7,700 tonnes of U.S. soft red winter wheat after detecting rodent excrement and signs of Canadian thistle.

Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said vessels carrying 25,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat were waiting to be unloaded in the port of Fortaleza and 11,000 tonnes in the port of Belem, both in the northern Brazil.

Shipments will be inspected before being unloaded and sent back if any Canadian thistle is detected, the ministry said.

Editors note: Richard Brock, Soybean Digest's Marketing Editor, is president of Brock Associates, a farm market advisory firm, and publisher of The Brock Report.

To see more market perspectives, visit Brock's Web site at www.brockreport.com.