From the Newsroom
São Paulo – Agribusiness has broken one more historic record in 2003. Sector export totaled US$ 30.639 billion last year, according to data supplied by the Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply Ministry Production and Trade Secretariat.
The total is US$ 5.8 billion (or 23.3%) greater than sector foreign trade in 2002, US$ 24,839 billion. With this, agribusiness participation in the total shipped from Brazil has risen from 41.1% to 41.9% in 2003. Import rose 6.6%, to US$ 4.791 billion.
The agribusiness foreign trade balance also broke another record, reaching a surplus of US$ 25.848 billion – 27% above the US$ 20.387 billion balance for 2002.
This result makes agribusiness responsible for the entire country global trade balance surplus US$ 24.824 billion, as the remaining sectors had a deficit of US$ 1 billion in the period.
"In 2004, if the current internal and external conditions are maintained, we should have a surplus of between US$ 27 billion and US$ 28 billion," says agriculture minister Roberto Rodrigues.
Soy, the countryside star
The positive export performance in 2003 is due to a growth in sales of all product groups, to an improvement in international prices of the main commodities, and to the opening of new markets.
It is important to mention the leadership of the soy complex. Soy complex export has risen 35.2%, from US$ 6.008 billion to US$ 8.125 billion, due to the increase of soy grain sales (41.5%), ground soy (18.3%) and oil in bulk (54.3%).
Apart from the increase in export volume due to a record harvest of 52 million tons, price elevations on the international market have also contributed to a growth of export revenue for the sector.
In some cases, revenues with products shipped rose more than the volume exported. The meat complex and forestry products were among these.
In the meat sector, with sales rising from US$ 3.1 billion to US$ 4.1 billion (+31%), cattle beef sales shot up, from US$ 776 million to US$ 1.154 billion (+49%). In volume, the increase was 44%.
In chicken meat, the country had sales of US$ 1.3 billion in 2002, and last year ended at US$ 1.7 billion (+28%), exporting 20% more than in 2002. Coffee export revenue rose 7%, to US$ 1.423 billion. In volume, this increase was just 1%.
Cotton sales and textile fibers had a comeback in 2003, rising from US$ 800 million to US$ 1.1 billion (+35%). In wheat, Brazil started exporting. Shipments totaled 50,000 tons in 2003. In the past, none was exported. Corn sales amounted to 3.5 million tons, adding up to US$ 375 million, a result 40% over that for 2002.
In forestry products, paper and cellulose export rose 38%, from US$ 2 billion to US$ 2.8 billion. Wood sales rose 18.4%, to US$ 2.6 billion. There was still a positive performance in fruit juice (17.5%); fruit and vegetables (32.9%); leather, skins, and shoes (5.3%); cocoa (55.4%); tobacco (8.1%); and fish (23.2%).
New markets
Foreign sales were even more diversified in 2003, and there was an expressive increase in participation in new markets, such as Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. In all the main economic blocs there was some growth: Mercosur (the Common Market of the South, a customs union between Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), 40%; the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) 17%; the European Union, 22.4%; Eastern Europe, 26.8%; Asia, 33.3%; the Middle East, 34.3%; and Africa, 9.7%.
Participation of these blocs as export destinations also changed; the EU is still in the lead, absorbing 36.4% of total agribusiness export.
Asia increased its share from 16.7% to 18.1%, catching up with he FTAA, which had a drop in participation from 19% to 18.1% in 2003. The Middle East increased its participation from 6.2% to 6.8%; Eastern Europe, from 6.1% to 6.3%; and the Mercosur from 2.7% to 3.1%.
The countries that most purchased Brazilian agribusiness products were China (66.2% increase); Turkey (67%); Romania (114%); Ukraine (35.9%); Hong Kong (35.9%); Taiwan (67.3%); Iran (71.7%); Israel (122.9%) and South Africa (56.8%).
