Agribusiness growth stabilizes Brazilian trade balance despite Covid-19

Brazilian agribusiness exports are growing in their share of Brazil’s trade balance. Data released by the Agriculture Ministry indicates that exports grew by a daily average of 17.5% in the first four months of this year when compared with the first four months of the previous year. As a result, the percentage share of agriculture in total exports went from 18.7% in 2019 to 22.9% in 2020.

DataLiner data for the first three months of 2020 corroborates data from the Ministry of Agriculture. Exports in the first three months of 2020 in relation to the first three months of 2019 grew, in some cases, more than 50%, as is the case of cotton, exports of which increased by 63.9% year-on-year.

Source: DataLiner

For sugar, DataLiner data shows a 23.4% growth in the first quarter of 2020 compared to year-ago levels. In April the revenue obtained from exports of raw and refined sugar from Brazil totaled US$475 million, 7.7% higher than the previous month, and 33.8% higher than March 2019, which totaled US$355 million. Record numbers are expected for the 2020/2021 harvest.

Source: DataLiner

Soy exports grew 4.9% in the first quarter of 2020 year-on-year, but expectations are for an even greater increase when including April data.  Information released last Monday by the Ministry of Economics shows that in April 2020, soy broke records for the most exports in volume for the month of April, totaling 16.3 million tons.

Source: DataLiner

Meat

Another major highlight for Brazilian exports in the first quarter of 2020 was animal proteins, mainly pork, which registered a growth of 43.34% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019. This growth was caused by China, since it registered an increase in the African swine flu in its pigs, thus increasing its need for Brazilian exports of the protein.

According to DataLiner, chicken exports registered a growth of 6.64% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019. According to Secex, from January to April 2020, chicken remained the seventh most exported Brazilian product in this period, responsible for 2.89% of the Brazilian foreign exchange revenue, a participation index 6.63% higher than the same four-month period of 2019.

With regard to beef, despite a 5.86% drop in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019, when considering March 2020, there was an increase of 2.22% compared to March 2019. Forecasts for the coming months are also positive.  Data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex) compiled by Abiec (the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries), indicates that Brazil is expected to ship more than 2 million tons of beef in 2020. This would be 130,000 tons more than last year, a period that registered 12.4% growth compared to 2018.

According to the president of the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries (Abiec), Antônio Jorge Camardelli, Brazilian beef exports should surpass the record set in 2019 and generate US$8 billion in foreign exchange this year, even in the face of the coronavirus crisis.  According to Abiec, the country does not have any paralyzed bovine production units due to Covid-19, which is not the case for the US, which has had to shut down several meatpacking plants due to the disease. This provides an opportunity for Brazil to increase its exports to the North American market, which reopened its doors to Brazilian meat in February.

Source: DataLiner

 

 

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