A ship carrying 51,200 tons of corn became the first Brazilian vessel to dock at Jiangyin Port on the Yangtze River, with ships from the agricultural giant delivering 2.4 million tons of grain in total. The delivery comes as Brazil (the second largest corn exporter in the world) is ramping up exports to China. Chinese demand is expected to increase total exports to 5.02 tons in January.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? South America’s agricultural sector is key to China’s ambitions to lessen its dependence on U.S. imports.