The National Food Supply Agency (CONAB) of Brazil put 35 000 tonnes of rice paddy to sale through two auctions on September 1 and sold nearly 50 percent of the total volume offered. The measure is part of CONAB’s Minimum Guaranteed Price Policy (PGPM) to stockpile or sell strategic reserves of widely used food commodities in an effort to support farmers or ease market supply concerns and high prices. The auctions aimed to boost availabilities of paddy in the market and ease prices, which had risen further in August and reached record levels in nominal terms. Prices were underpinned by tight domestic availabilities, as a result of depleted inventories coupled with a sharply-reduced output this year, after a combination of high production costs and excessive precipitation negatively affected plantings and yields.