Ministry of Agriculture received a technical questionnaire to check the feasibility of starting a partnership
12/13/2022
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Bean harvest is just under 3 million tonnes per season — Foto: Claudio Belli/Valor
The Brazilian private sector has insisted for years, and now China is showing the first signs of interest in importing beans and pulses (lentils, chickpeas, and peas) from the country. Last month, the Ministry of Agriculture received a request for answers to a technical questionnaire sent by the Chinese to check the feasibility of starting shipments.
Although the document is not an official manifesto, producers and industries in Brazil are celebrating, since the opening may represent good opportunities. In China, the per capita consumption of beans is only 1.7 kilos per year, but the average has grown 400% annually.
“This is a work that has been going on for years, involving the Ministry of Agriculture, Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the interested segments. In the specific case of mung beans [also known as moyashi and used to produce edible sprouts], it was very celebrated in Brazil,” Ariana Guedes, international advisor to the State Secretariat of Economic Development (Sedec) in Asia, told Valor.
The beginning of this process is also related to the loss of area destined for the planting of beans, especially for crops such as soybeans, as has also happened in Brazil, added the advisor. Given this trend, exporting to China may represent even more than compensation.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the 2019/20 harvest, China produced 4 million tonnes of beans, lentils, chickpeas, and peas, down 10% from 2018/19. In Brazil, the bean harvest is just under 3 million tonnes per season, with gross production value estimated by the government at R$15 billion this year.
It is worth remembering that Brazil makes occasional imports of black beans from China, especially when there are difficulties in Argentina, which supplies 90% of the 100,000 tonnes imported by the country annually.
Although the Chinese do not consume beans as much as Brazilians, the demand for processing has been growing in the country, for use in human food and animal feed. According to Ibrafe, between 2018 and 2021 there was a 172.3% increase in Chinese imports of mung beans, 819.7% in purchases of pinto beans, 503.7% in red beans, 2.8% in peas, and 79.7% in chickpeas.
According to Mr. Araújo, Canada currently supplies 93% of pulses imported by China, while the United States keeps the rest. The world market for beans and pulses is worth $26 billion annually, according to the Brazilian Institute of the Bean (Ibrafe), and it is natural that China’s greater appetite, considering its population of 1.4 billion, will transform the landscape.
In addition, Larissa Wachholz, former special advisor to former Minister Tereza Cristina (Agriculture) for issues related to China and partner at Vallya Agro, stressed that the growth of China’s middle to lower-middle class, today with about 800 million people, has broadened the debate on food security and health.
“There is a trend that those people who have moved to urban areas and achieved a better income be more concerned about food diversification and nutritional issues. Pulses fall into that category, which is a great opportunity for Brazil,” he said.
Despite the euphoria of the Brazilian private sector, Fábio Coelho Correa de Araújo, Brazilian agricultural attaché in China, reinforced, in an interview with Valor, that the Chinese questionnaire does not mean official interest in buying Brazilian products. At least for now. “The opening of the market for plant products is done through risk analysis of the product, and this can take months or years.”
This does not discourage optimists, though. And Marcelo Lüders, president of Ibrafe, is one of them. “With the problems of the war in Ukraine, the Chinese needed to expand their peanut suppliers and authorized Brazilian purchases in a few months. The same can happen with pulses,” he said.
It was Mr. Lüders who forwarded the questionnaire received from the Chinese to Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation Rice and Beans) and IAC (Agronomic Institute of Campinas). But both are waiting for an official request from the Ministry of Agriculture to contribute with the technical aspects.
*By Fernanda Pressinott — São Paulo
Source: Valor International