São Paulo – The prices of agricultural commodities should stabilise in the second half, after a period of appreciation on the international market. The forecast was made by the chairman of the Brazilian Rural Society (SRB in the Portuguese acronym) and of this year’s edition of International Fair of Agricultural Technology in Action (Agrishow 2011), Cesário Ramalho. The fair of high-technology products for the agricultural sector will open on Monday (2nd), in Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, and will bring together 765 exhibitors from 45 countries up until May 6th.
According to Ramalho, 145,000 visitors and deals worth over 1 billion reals (US$ 630.7 million) are expected. Last year, deals reached 1.15 billion reals (US$ 725 million).
To Ramalho, the country is faring well on the global scenario, despite some disadvantages compared with foreign competitors that receive subsidies and do not face the same problems as Brazilian farmers, such as a deficient infrastructure for shipping the crop, for instance.
Ramalho recognizes that the profitability of agribusiness has been good over the last few months, but that for the time being, good deals have been compensating only the losses accumulated in the past.
For this year, the National Food Supply Company (Conab) forecast a new record crop, of 157.4 million tonnes, 5.5% more than the 2009-2010 crop. Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture indicate that revenues from the country’s 20 leading crops should reach 193.2 billion reals (US$ ), 7.3% more than last year. The minister of Agriculture, Wagner Rossi, will attend the opening of the fair.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
