Brasília, 4/1/2004 (Agência Brasil) - Brazil has just recently gone from being an importer of wheat to being an importer-exporter. The results are promising. The forecast was for 2003/2004 harvest wheat exports to reach 1 million by August. They are now at just slightly over 1 million tons - 1.033 million tons, to be exact.

The biggest importers of Brazilian wheat are in Africa and northern Europe.

At the moment, Brazil is producing 5.8 million tons of wheat annually. Brazilian domestion wheat consumption is running at 10 million tons annually. Even having to import almost 50% of the wheat it consumes, Brazil has managed to become an exporter. (Translator: Allen Bennett)