F
oreign sales of seeds produced in
Brazil are still insignificant. They
amounted to 46.7 thousand tons
and US$ 157.7 million in 2016, up
22.7 percent and 6.6 percent from
the previous year, respectively. In the mean-
time, in the first half of 2017, compared to
the same period of the previous year, both
numbers were smaller. Nonetheless, there
arenovelties at public level and they are sup-
posed toboost the foreignoperations.
Oneofthesenoveltiesisnormativeinstruc-
tion (IN25) published in July 2017 by theMin-
istry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Sup-
ply(Mapa)andsettointerintoforceinthenext
month, simplifying import and export pro-
cedures, which had been the target of com-
plaints.Mapaofficialsexpectthatthemeasure
willcontributetowardexpandingtheBrazilian
shareintheinternationalmarketofthesector.
The instruction, according to Virgínia Car-
pi, coordinator of Seeds and Seedlings at the
Farm Inputs Inspection Department (DFIA),
of the Mapa, intends to remove the bureau-
cratic hurdles and make the segment more
dynamic. The most important innovations
include a reduction of forms, maximizing
the use of the Integrated Foreign Trade Sys-
tem (Sicomex) and of the Integrated Foreign
Trade Vision (Vicomex), thus eliminating the
need for duplicatedocuments.
On the other hand, in 2016, in viewof the
visitbytheEuropeanDelegationtotheCoun-
try, Brazil was granted the equivalence cer-
tificate by the European Union, giving its ap-
proval to the Brazilian seed control system,
turning it equivalent to theEuropeansystem.
The perspective brought about by this eval-
uation was the beginning of exports to this
market,aftergoingthroughspecifictechnical
details at ministerial level. The first items to
beincludedarecornandwinterforageseeds,
based on European materials of temperate
climate tobepropagatedat national level.
Corn and forage seeds (tropical ones) are
the ones that now lead foreign sales of the
sector in Brazil. The former went up in 2016,
compared to 2015, amounting to almost 31
thousand tons and US$ 84.76 million, but
shows a reduction in the first half of 2017,
compared to the same period in the previ-
ous year. As for tropical forage seed, the vol-
ume exported did not suffer big changes in
2015 and 2016 (respectively 8.5 thousand
tons and 8.4 thousand tons, and US$ 47 mil-
lionandUS$44million),buttherehasbeena
decrease in the first half of thecurrent year.
n
Brazilianseed
exports
arestilllittleexpressive,butthesimplification
oftherulesbythegovernmentcouldleadtoprogressonthatscore
Easier
ways
