(Bloomberg) -- Blairo Maggi, Brazil’s agriculture minister, said the national trucker strike over fuel costs may boost food prices and increase imports.

Soybean ship congestion increases at ports

The number of soybean vessels waiting to dock at Santos, the largest Latin America port, increased to 24 on Tuesday from 11 a week earlier, according to ship agency Williams. Ships lined up at all Brazilian ports rose to 78 from 50.

Road blockades continue to prevent soybean, sugar and meat cargoes from reaching export terminals, and Santos can’t receive trucks, a port authority press officer said Wednesday in an email.

Government to sell corn inventories

The government plans to sell corn inventories directly to poultry and pork producers and the animal-feed processing industry. Supplies are estimated at 1 million tons, Jose Maria dos Anjos, trade director at the Secretariat of Brazil Agricultural Policy. Sales will be at Conab’s spot price. Warehouses in Mato Grosso hold more than 80 percent of stockpiles.

Strike slows coffee harvest, Cepea says (10:45 a.m. N.Y. time)

“Many growers, who had already started to harvest both early beans and younger crops, had to reduce activities this week” because there’s no fuel for workers or machinery in some places, Cepea, the University of Sao Paulo’s research arm, said in a report.

Brazil recovery threatened by strike (10:02 a.m.)

Family consumption and lower interest rates supported a faint recovery of the Brazilian economy in the first quarter, even as strikes and political uncertainty weigh on the outlook for the year.

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--With assistance from David Biller and Marvin G. Perez.

To contact the reporters on this story: Fabiana Batista in Sao Paulo at fbatista6@bloomberg.net;Tatiana Freitas in São Paulo at tfreitas4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Patrick McKiernan

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