Evolução e desempenho da política de contratos de opção de venda para mercados agrícolas

From the 1990s, in face of the smaller participation of the government in the economy and, consequently, in the agricultural sector, the government policy has carried out, as alternative, new support forms to the agriculture, with reduction of public resources. With regarding to the agricultural marketing, more modern instruments have been designed, involving the private sector, among them, the Sell Option Contracts, set up under the form of an insurance of prices for the farmers. In this study, it is analyzed the performance of that instrument for the wheat, rice and corn markets. It was detected, for all those markets, sensitive reduction of the government's participation in the agricultural marketing through the traditional instruments, in favor of actions that shrink the public expenses. The Sell Option Contracts are still very restricted both in terms of marketed amount and in terms of regional allocation. It was also verified that the releases are not systematic and continuous, what hinders conclusions regarding its effectiveness as mechanism of price stabilization, production and income.