Brazil has a long tradition of agricultural policies. Brazil has utilised public procurement programmes and maintained buffer stocks since the Convention of Taubaté (1906), by which the state held coffee purchases from large landowners to regulate international prices. In the “Estado Novo” period (1937- 1945) various public institutions were created, whose aim was to promote and regulate the sugar, mate and pine markets. These policies were intended to foster regional elites with price stabilization programmes. In 1943, President Getúlio Vargas’ government created a production financing company, the Cia. de Financiamento da Produção, with the aim of building regulatory stocks of grains and other products, complemented by the creation of a storage company, the Cia. Brasileira de Armazenamento (CIBRAZEN) in 1962 in order to build and manage public warehouses for food and ensure price stability.

From the mid-twentieth century, Brazil has created support mechanisms for the production, marketing of agricultural stocks heavily influenced by the US model of the Commodity Credit Corporation. These policies are still in force, aiming to regulate domestic prices by placing public stocks purchased through a system of minimum prices. The most common marketing instruments are direct purchases from the federal government (AGF) and public loans to finance private stocks, with a purchase option by the federal government (EGF).