Wheat Congress debates the future of the sector at a global level

With the presence of more than 600 representatives from the wheat market, the 31st edition of the International Wheat Industry Congress was marked by debates on the global performance of the sector in Brazil and worldwide. The event, held in Foz do Iguaçu (PR), brought a program aimed at the chain, with 12 lectures and a workshop.

Divided into the panels “The Wheat Market”, “Technologies and the Future of Wheat in Food”, “Wheat and the Media” and “Sales Channels for Wheat Derivatives”, the congress was attended by important representatives of the sector, such as the Deputy Secretary of the Secretariat for Agricultural Defense of the Ministry of Agriculture (Mapa), Allan Rogério de Alvarenga; Federal Deputy Luiz Carlos Hauly; the Supervisor of Embrapa Trigo, Osvaldo Vasconcellos; and the Portuguese researcher and head of the Functional Genomics and Proteomics Unit of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Gilberto Igrejas, among others.

“This edition met the interests of the entire wheat chain. During the three days, we received representatives from all work fronts in the sector, which made the event a great success”, celebrated the CEO of Abitrigo, Rubens Barbosa.

As Barbosa highlighted, the selection of themes – direct and objective – focused on presenting participants with the real scenario of global wheat production, promoting knowledge about management and new technologies.

Wheat: Brazil and Argentina

During the congress, Allan Rogério de Alvarenga announced, first-hand, that, as of December 1, 2024, Brazil will implement, in ports throughout the country, risk management in the import of Argentine wheat.

The initiative, as explained by the Deputy Secretary, meets a demand from the sector, simplifying the process of importing Argentine grain without compromising food safety. In practice, the inspection of products entering Brazil, previously applied to 100% of cargo, will be reduced to 10%, with control carried out by a system integrated into a single portal.

“This change will allow the monitoring of all entries, enabling the selection of loads that will undergo physical inspection and sample collection, while the rest will be released directly for processing or destination,” Alvarenga highlighted during his presentation.

Perception about gluten

As a highlight of the panel “Wheat and the Media”, the Brazilian Wheat Industry Association (Abitrigo) presented a survey conducted by Buzzmonitor, which monitored the term “gluten” on social media and information sites to understand the approach to the topic and identify the predominance of positive or negative views, in addition to the contexts in which the term is discussed.

According to Buzzmonitor's Business Manager, Erick Garcia, the analysis allows the market to adjust its communication strategies to promote awareness and get closer to consumers, since the term “gluten” generates diverse discussions on social media, including praise and criticism.

The survey, conducted between April and October 2024, indicated that the majority of the public engaged on social media about the topic is made up of women, who represent 63,5% of interactions, while men correspond to 36,5%. As for the sentiment of the publications, 46,6% express a positive view on gluten, 31,4% have a negative perspective and 22% are neutral.

Preparations for 2025

Due to the success of the event, the president of the Abitrigo Deliberative Council, Rogério Tondo, announced preparations for the next edition.

“We only have one word to describe the 2024 Congress: 'fantastic'. This year, we saw a 20% increase in the number of participants, with representatives from 16 countries from South America, North America and Europe,” he celebrated.

For Tondo, these numbers demonstrate that the congress achieved its objective of promoting the exchange of information and networking.

“In 2025, you can expect at least an event as good as this one or even bigger. We are already working on selecting topics and speakers, in addition to counting on an opinion survey to understand the interest of our participants,” he announced.