UPDATE 2-Soy loading resumes at Brazil port after COVID-19 case, ship in quarantine

27 May 2020, 00:37

(Adds health authorities authorize resumption of loading)

By Roberto Samora and Marcelo Teixeira

SAO PAULO/NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) - Soybean loading operations were set to resume late on Tuesday at a berth at Brazil's Paranaguá port after a ship was ordered into quarantine following a positive COVID-19 test on a crew member, authorities said.

Loading at the berth was halted after the positive test, the Williams shipping agency said, adding that it was the first confirmed case of the disease at the port since the coronavirus outbreak began.

All other berths at the port continued to operate as normal.

Brazil's health surveillance agency ANVISA later authorized the ship to leave berth 214 after all other crew members were tested, the port said in a statement.

The vessel was ordered to anchor in a quarantine area and remain there until further notice, it said.

Brazil is the top supplier of soybeans to China, the world's biggest buyer of the beans.

(Reporting by Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo and Marcelo Teixeira in New York; Editing by Tom Brown and Richard Pullin)