São Paulo – Oman, an Arab country in the Gulf, was the seventh main destination in exports of Brazilian trading companies in the first quarter of this year, according to information disclosed by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. The nation is the only area that integrates the list of ten main clients for these companies abroad and spent US$ 173 million in their products in the period. There was growth of 218.5% over the first quarter last year, when they were at US$ 54.2 million.
In the list of 20 main destinations for trading company exports, however, there are also other Arab nations, like Saudi Arabia, in the 17th position, and Libya, in the 18th. They imported US$ 62 million and US$ 54.3 million, respectively. The rank of 50 main buyers includes Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia and Sudan, respectively. The main destination for trading company products in the international market, in the period, was China, followed by South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
From January to March this year, these companies had total revenues of US$ 5.2 billion, with a reduction of 4.5% over the same period in 2012. Trading companies answered to 10.2% of the total shipped by Brazil to the international market. Basic product exports totalled 83.8% of the total sold by them, with special attention to iron ore, which had a 60.6% share, soy in grain, with 9%, maize in grain, with 7.2%, soy chaff, with 3.1%, and chicken, with 2.2% of the total.
In March, alone, trading company export revenues were US$ 1.8 billion, which meant a 3.98% drop over the same month in 2012. In the period the main destination for sales was China, followed by the Netherlands and Belgium.
*Translated by Mark Ament
