The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddadstated this Wednesday that the content of the provisional measure to enable the import of up to 1 million tons of rice depends on the price of the product abroad.
With the prospect of the impact of the calamity on Rio Grande do Sul in food prices and inflation, the government announced yesterday that the purchase of the product on the foreign market would be made by the National Supply Company (Conab). The state of RS accounts for 70% of national production.
“He (Lula) calls me to ask questions like: price of this or price of that. Yesterday he was talking about the price of rice, the determination he made in case of importing rice. Now, if you import rice, the price outside needs to be lower than the price inside, otherwise you will import, and the price will rise” said Haddad, this morning.
Domestic consumption annually is about 10 million tons. Haddad also informed that the next Harvest Plan will foresee crop diversification, based on the anticipated effects of the critical situation in Rio Grande do Sul.
“We are going to create a mechanism to make the states diversify their production a little. In other words, the culture will not be concentrated in just one state,” he declared.
The Finance Minister mentioned that the government is working on several fronts in relation to the crisis in Rio Grande do Sul. This week, two projects to financially help the state were forwarded to the Civil House and will be submitted to Lula this Wednesday.
One of these projects is about the payment of RS’s debts to the Union and another that will open a line of facilitated credit, targeting low-income families.
“The issue of a subsidized credit line, with a lot of responsibility, is to allow people to rebuild their lives; from a material point of view, many people have lost everything” he said.
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