São Paulo – Foreign sales of soy and its products, sugar and alcohol, and tobacco and its products boosted Brazilian exports in June. There was growth of 54% in shipments of tobacco and its products, of 48.9% in soy products and of 21.6% in sugar and alcohol products. Overall exports grew 12% over the same period of last year, having totalled US$ 7.3 billion, with a surplus of US$ 6.6 billion.
Exports of soy and its products grew mostly as a result of shipments of soybean and chaff. Exports of soybean grew 71.3% in June over the same month of last year, from US$ 1.5 billion to US$ 2.577 billion. In terms of volume, there was growth of 74.2%, with prices 1.7% lower than in 2008. Shipments of soy chaff grew 11.1% volume-wise, with an average price 8.4% higher. Thus, the export value grew more than the shipped volume, with an increase of 20.4%.
Exports of sugar and alcohol went from US$ 703 million to US$ 855 million, as a result of a 39.7% rise in sugar exports in June compared with the same month of 2008. Revenues from sugar sales totalled US$ 706 million. Foreign sales of alcohol dropped by 24.5% in terms of value, having totalled US$ 150 million. In the last twelve months, Brazilian agribusiness exports totalled US$ 69.4 billion.
There was a reduction in imports of agribusiness products in June. They went from US$ 950 million to US$ 721 million, reduction of 24.1%. However, imports of certain products, such as wheat, have increased. The imported volume grew 34%, but an average cost reduction of 43.7% led Brazil to spend less on purchases of the product: US$ 108 million as against US$ 143 million in the same period of last year.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
