Giuliana Napolitano
São Paulo – The year for Brazilian agribusiness was 2003, showing record performance in all areas, influencing the trade balance. An example was the 33% export growth of the centre-western region last year – the largest increase in the country. There was a record volume of US$ 3.8 billion. In the South, where trade was also pulled by agriculture and livestock, there was a 24% increase, to US$ 18.9 billion, the third largest in Brazil, according to data supplied by the Development Ministry.
The fuel for such increases came from one sector: the soy complex. In the south, soy shipping rose by 60% in 2003, when compared to the previous year, to US$ 1.9 billion. Soy oil sales rose 49% and reached US$ 755 million. In the centre-west, expansion was 30% and 72%, to US$ 1.6 billion and US$ US$ 180 million, respectively.
The northern state of Tocantins, alone, showed 177% increase in soy shipping. In the centre-western state of Goiás, the increase was 170%. The performance of the soy complex gave these two states the largest export increases last year: 181.2% and 69.8%, respectively.
USA, China and mad cow
The soy complex was benefited by a set of factors, explained the director of the Brazilian Foreign Trade Association (AEB), José Augusto de Castro. One of them was a drop in US harvest. "With that, the US gave Brazil the position of largest soy exporter in the world," stated the specialist.
Apart from that, China increased its soy purchases and, due to the mad cow disease, many countries replaced the animal feeds they used to use for vegetable foods, made out of ground soy. Thus, total sector export rose 35% in 2003 reaching US$ 8.1 billion.
