São Paulo – Brazilian cooperatives’ exports grew by 37.7% in the first half of 2011 when compared with the same period of 2010. From January to June this year, the sector’s exports reached US$ 2.746 billion. The 15 leading markets of Brazilian cooperatives include the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
"Brazilian cooperates have been focusing on offering products with ever-increasing quality and maintaining a trade relation with its traditional targets. Competence, coupled with the stable commodities prices, has led to this growth,” said Márcio Lopes de Freitas, president of the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB, in the Portuguese acronym), in a statement issued by the organization.
This was the best first-half result ever since the historical series began, in 2005. In that year, cooperatives’ exports accounted for 1.9% of total Brazilian exports. This year, the sector’s foreign sales already answer to 2.3% of the country’s export basket.
The main products exported by the cooperatives in the first half of 2011 included: coffee bean (with revenues of US$ 382.5 million, equivalent to 13.9% of the total shipped by cooperatives); refined sugar (US$ 377.1 million, 13.7%); soy bean (US$ 342.2 million, 12.5%); raw sugar (US$ 321.6 million, 11.7%); and soy chaff (US$ 291 million, 10.6%).
Germany was the leading target of the sector’s exports, having purchased the equivalent of US$ 317.6 million, or 11.6% of the total shipped. The United Arab Emirates ranked fourth in the list of importers, at US$ 215.4 million. Sales to Algeria fetched US$ 119.4 million; to Saudi Arabia, US$ 108.2 million; to Egypt, US$ 54 million.
Imports
The main products imported by the cooperatives in the first half of 2011 were: potassium chlorides (US$ 28.8 million in imports, or 17.5% of total imports by cooperatives); barley for beer (US$ 23.8 million, 14.4%); unroasted malt (US$ 17.6 million, 10.7%); dihydrogen ammonium orthophosphate (US$ 11.4 million, 6.9%); and nitrogenated urea (US$ 8.8 million, 5.3%).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
