Brazil, the world's No 3 corn producer, is set to export more corn as a growing share of the US crop is used to produce ethanol, a government analyst said on Thursday. The United States is the world's biggest corn exporter, shipping some 52 million tonnes in 2005/06 compared with 1 million tonnes by Brazil, US Department of Agriculture data showed.
Brazil is currently an irregular exporter of corn, depending on crop size, world prices and exchange rates. "The US is processing more corn into ethanol, creating an export opportunity for Brazil," Marco Antonio de Carvalho, corn analyst at the Brasilia-based National Crop Supply Agency (Conab), told Reuters in a phone interview. The USDA estimates that 20 percent of this year's US corn crop will be used to produce ethanol.