Russia food ban offers big opportunity for Brazil

The Globe and Mail ^ | 08/07/2009 | CAROLINE STAUFFER AND SILVIO CASCIONE

[Freelance Warrior]

Russia’s ban on many western food products presents a massive opportunity for meat and grain exports from Brazil and a smaller one for its Latin American neighbors.

Around 90 new meat plants in Brazil were immediately approved to export beef, chicken and pork to Russia and the South American nation is already working to increase its exports of corn and soybeans sales to Russian buyers, Brazil’s secretary of agricultural policy, Seneri Paludo, said on Thursday.

Brazil’s enthusiasm for Russia comes after President Vladimir Putin ordered retaliation for sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

“Russia has huge potential as a consumer of agricultural commodities,” Paludo told journalists in Brasilia, comparing the “window” opened by the embargo to the “revolution” that Brazil’s exports experienced when China’s commodities market opened a decade ago.

The president of Brazil’s animal protein association ABPA said on Wednesday Brazil could cover U.S. chicken exports to Russia and would increase exports by 150,000 tonnes per year, though increasing pork exports would be harder.

[all the best]

These sanctions that keep getting announced by the EU, by the U.S. and by Canada are really crazy. The people in these governments doing this have taken leave of their senses. Here are sixteen reasons why I say this.
First, it makes no sense to pressure Russia over Ukraine, which is in its backyard and has always been in its backyard.
Second, it’s senseless to inflict sanctions over Crimea when there was no invasion and when the vote to go with Russia was so one-sided.
Third, it’s senseless to impose sanctions on the notion that Russia controls the separatists in eastern Ukraine. Whatever their links are, they are murky at best and now involve self-defense against the attacks on eastern civilian centers by Kiev.
Fourth, there are no direct links between those people and businesses being sanctioned and the decisions that are expected of Russia’s leadership. The supposed effect of sanctions, which are supposed to bring a political change, is not even remotely connected to their actual economic effects.
Fifth, it is not clear what persons in Russia’s ruling bodies are expected to alter their decisions or how they are supposed to act to end the sanctions.
Sixth, the governments imposing the sanctions have no exit plans on ending them.
Seventh, sanctions are leading to a tit for tat game that is prone to escalation.
Eighth, sanctions move away from cooperation of nations and harm the populations of both sides. There are important matters where the sanctioning governments would benefit from Russian cooperation and help.
Ninth, sanctions can’t help Ukraine when Russia is a natural trading partner for it.
Tenth, it’s senseless to impose sanctions on Russia over what is primarily a civil conflict in Ukraine. Eleventh, it’s senseless to impose sanctions on Russia because of a movement for self-determination in part of Ukraine, just as it’s senseless for Kiev to be making war on people who want more autonomy and reject Kiev’s government.
Twelfth, as a general matter, sanctions tend not to have their desired results. They often stiffen the resolve of those sanctioned.
Thirteenth, Russia is simply too large a country and too important a country to sanction.
Fourteenth, Russia is going to find alternatives because of the sanctions.
Fifteenth, sanctions are simply poisoning relationships between Russia and the West.
Sixteenth, it’s senseless to be trying to push Russia around over this particular matter on its border and in which it has an interest, especially when the West jumps into many regions of the world whenever it pleases, creating havoc as it goes, and especially since the West played such an important role in stoking the change in government in Ukraine.

[Iron Munro]

King Barack Nancy-Pant’s foolish and ineffective actions will once again do more damage to America than to their supposed target.

[Caipirabob]

Meanwhile in the US, we can’t even find basic Brasilian food brands without going on a “Holy Grail” style quest. Nice job, DC dips*s...

[tcrlaf]

Finnish Dairy Valio announced that it has stopped all production lines for products intended for Russia, is laying off 800 Finns, and moving as much production as possible to a Valio plant inside Russia.

http://m.iltalehti.fi/talous/2014080818554250_ta.shtml

The smaller Euro Nations are the ones getting hit the hardest by both the sanctions and the counter-sanctions, and will be the first to crack.