São Paulo – Exports of Brazilian agriculture and livestock products to the Middle East went up 46.3% in March over the same month of last year, according to data released this Friday (8) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa). Revenies generated by the sector with sales to region went from USD 495.1 million in March 2015 to USD 724.3 million in the last month.
This increase stands way above the general growth of agricultural international sales, which stood at 5.9%. Brazilian agriculture and livestock generated a profit of USD 8.3 billion with sales for the external market in March. The sector’s products accounted for 52.2% of all revenues that Brazil generated with exports.
The Middle East appears as the third region in the world that bought the most from the country, trailing only Asia and the European Union. There was a significant increase of exports to Iran, which is not an Arab country, but is located in the region. Iranians imported 124.6% more from Brazil in agricultural products, totaling USD 222.8 million. Among the largest Arab importers, those that increased imports were Saudi Arabia (5.9%), Egypt (16.8%) and the United Arab Emirates (69.4%).
Overall, the areas within agribusiness that exported the most in March were soy complex, with sales totaling USD 3.4 billion with an increase of 23.8%, meats, with an increase of 5.4% and revenues of USD 1.24 billion, and the sugar-alcohol complex, with USD 737.2 million in exports and increase of 10.8% over the same month of last year.
Year-to-date up to March, Brazilian agribusiness exported USD 20 billion, with an increase of 8.7% over the same period of 2015. In Q1 the sectors that exported the most were soy complex, meats and forest products. Livestock and agriculture accounted for 49.4% of all exports by Brazil in the period, according to Mapa.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
