Brazil soy lobby defends modernization of soy moratorium

SAO PAULO, April 23 (Reuters) - A case pending before Brazil's Supreme Court gives the soy industry an opportunity to improve the "soy moratorium," an agreement under which soy buyers ban purchases of the oilseed from areas of deforestation in the Amazon after a cutoff date in 2008, according to Andre Nassar, head of Brazil's soybean traders lobby Abiove.

Speaking before the Senate's agriculture committee on Wednesday, Nassar alluded to a case before the Supreme Court which will determine if a law passed by Mato Grosso state removing tax incentives for signatories of the soy moratorium is constitutional.