In an assembly in the city of Santana do Livramento, rice growers from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the southernmost part of Brazil, decided to step up surveillance, beginning today, at all the border posts with Uruguay and Argentina, in order to block the entry of trucks loaded with rice.
The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture in Rio Grande do Sul, Francisco Signor, affirmed, yesterday, that the government has been accompanying the situation of the producers in Rio Grande do Sul and is searching for solutions to the impasse.
He also recalled that hundreds of Brazilian farmers have been planting rice in Uruguay and Argentina, where the costs are lower, and bringing the product to sell in Brazil.
“If the harvest was bountiful, if there is an oversupply of the product, it is because the federal government helped to underwrite the costs of cultivation,” he added.
For the president of the Rural Syndicate of the municipality of Bagé, Ricardo Zago, the difficulty with the competition lies in the cost of inputs, which are cheaper in Argentina and Uruguay.
“We are losing US$ 5.20 (13 reais) on each sack we produce, so there is no way for us to compete,” he lamented.
ABr