Brazil Agrees to Let Some Wheat Enter Duty-Free, an Opening for U.S. Grain
Successful Farming – 03/20/2019
Wheat growers declared victory — “a big win” — with Brazil’s agreement on Tuesday to allow duty-free import of wheat grown outside of a South American trading bloc. The so-called tariff-rate quota could result in exports worth more than $100 million a year if U.S. wheat dominates the new market opening…The export-promoter U.S. Wheat Associates said the TRQ would allow U.S. wheat to compete evenly with South American wheat. At current prices on the futures markets, 750,000 tonnes of wheat is worth $125 million. The USDA says Brazil imports more than 7 million tonnes of wheat a year. The United States is forecast to export 27 million tonnes of wheat during the current trade year.
Trump Considering Leaving Tariffs on China After Deal
Agri-Pulse – 03/20/2019
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he’s planning on leaving U.S. tariffs on Chinese products in place “for a substantial period of time,” even after some form of deal is reached with China. Trump’s comments are shaking the U.S. ag sector, which has been counting on a deal to put an end to tariffs China placed on American ag goods as a retaliatory measure. Trump, who recently said he appealed to Chinese President Xi Jinping to lift Chinese retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agriculture commodities, said he wants to leave the U.S. tariffs in place “because we have to make sure that if we do the deal with China, that China lives by the deal. Because they’ve had a lot of problems living by certain deals and we have to make sure.”
Brazil-U.S. Wheat Deal Catches Major Supplier Argentina Off Guard
Reuters – 03/20/2019
Farmers in Brazil and Argentina are concerned about Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s agreement to import 750,000 tonnes of wheat from the United States and other countries outside the Mercosur trade bloc without applying the 10 percent tariff that is usually levied on such purchases. Wheat growers in Argentina’s Pampas farm belt said if the deal was permanent and not just a one-off, then it would certainly have a negative impact given that Brazil is the primary buyer of Argentine wheat exports…”Argentina’s wheat sector totally rejects Brazil’s decision to import from the United States without tariffs,” Andres Alcaraz, a spokesman for CEC, Argentina’s grains export companies’ group, said on Wednesday.
‘Recipe for Flooding’ Threatens Wheat Along the Red River
Bloomberg – 03/20/2019
As the Midwest recovers from record flooding, cities and towns along the Red River in Minnesota, North Dakota and Canada are preparing for a deluge of their own as the heavy snows of winter start to melt. Fargo, North Dakota, has declared an emergency and ordered up 1 million sandbags, calling on residents to volunteer to fill the sacks that will be used to make temporary walls to hold back the river. In Canada, Manitoba has been predicting the Red would flood for weeks. Wheat prices jumped amid threats to grain shipments.
2019 National Wheat Contest Accepting Entries
The Progressive Farmer – 03/20/2019
Spring wheat growers have until Aug. 1. Growers who register their fields before April 1 for winter wheat and June 15 for spring wheat pay a lower entry fee, however. The wheat contest has documented impressive yields since its debut in 2015. Last year, Phillip Gross of Warden, Washington, broke the 200-bushel-per-acre yield barrier, with his winning irrigated winter wheat yield of 202.53 bpa. Several other growers logged yields in the 190s. But the contest is taking pains to recognize and reward winners for growing quality wheat, as well. For the second year in a row, wheat contest applicants will receive a sample kit to mail some of their harvested grain to contest organizers for analysis at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland, Oregon. Wheat samples must be Grade 1 or 2 to qualify for the contest’s national rankings, said Steve Joehl, director of research and technology at the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and director of the contest for the NWF.
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates