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 Seeking investments in ports and roads from China, its largest market for agricultural products, Brazil, the world's largest exporter of poultry and second-biggest supplier of soybeans, wants to see the Chinese investing much more in the country.
"The biggest difficulty we have is logistics," said Célio B. Porto, Secretary of Agribusiness for International Relations at Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, in an interview in Singapore. "Our biggest problem in improving our production is lack of capital."
Brazil needs better transportation for a smoother flow of goods to port, Porto said in Singapore. The country supplied products including soybeans, frozen meat and tobacco worth US$ 11 billion to China, accounting for about a fifth of its agricultural exports, he said.
China, which has one-fifth of the world's population and seven percent of the planet's arable land, has been looking to the Philippines and Africa for strategic food supplies. The country is the world's largest buyer of soybeans, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
"The investments China has been making in Asia and Africa represent future production. Brazil's competitiveness comes from having present production," Porto said. "While Africa has a lot of land, it doesn't have the technology or the responsiveness Brazil already has to meet China's needs," he added.
Porto is leading a government delegation to Singapore, Hong Kong and China to expand markets for its products. Last year's exports to Hong Kong were valued at US$ 1.2 billion, and to Singapore, at US$ 298 million, he informed.
Brazil is seeking to benefit from scandals, such as the one in China involving milk and other products tainted with melamine.
"There's an increase in demand for our dairy products where Australia and New Zealand are the biggest exporters for Asia. The same is happening in eggs," Porto said. "This was what happened with Brazilian beef exports when there was 'mad cow disease' in the U.S." in late 2003.
Meanwhile, the global credit crisis and a decline in prices of food grains from records may lower investments in agriculture, causing future food shortages, he said.
"With this fall in prices of agricultural products in the world, the lack of investment in these products will occur first where the cost of production is higher and that is not the case in Brazil," Porto concluded.
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
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Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
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On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
Have you not US$ 200 billion in foreign currencies reserves.......that you are so proud of ?
Why not use them ?
If not, then make your local interests rates WAAYYY...LOWER.
Brazil has the World Highest Interets Rates....after inflation.
Why ask China to use their foreign currencies reserves for investment in Brazil...WHEN YOU HAVE THESE RESOURCES AVAILABLE AT HOME ?????
WELLLLL...THAT IS THE BRAZILIAN COMMON SENSE....OF THEIR UNCOMMON SENSE !
Brazilians dont want to spend and invest but save and not spend and therefore expect others in both developed and emerging nations...TO SPEND AND INVEST..... in Brazil !
This shows not only the base of your fundamental weakness but also the base of your fundamental perpetual cheatings !
And "the lack of investment in these products will occur first where the cost of production is higher and that is not the case in Brazil,"
SO WRONG !!!!!
Your milk, chicken and grains farmers are struggling due to the LOW PRICES not only around the world but also due to LOCAL prices.
Many Brazilians milk farmers have streets protests and demonstrationd due to LOW PRICES, complaining they are LOSING MONEY !
Same for your Mato Grosso Farmers who already start to have their tractors and harvesters seized. Many even stopped paying their interests due...meaning they also wont repay the principal !!!!
Nooooo ?????
Welll just watch by yourself the videos on Globo Rural at TV GLOBO !
If I am not yet too idiot, GLOBO is the largest Brazilian TV.
RIGHT...OR NOT ??????
Hundreds and hundreds of short videos are available....FREE....for viewing, to see what is not as true as your filthy government leaders pretend OPENLY AND PUBLICLY !
Cheaters always cheat, liars always lie, hiders always hide ! Proven once more !
AND BRAZILIANS EXCEL at cheating, lying and hiding ! Just watch the videos...and compare to what your filthy officials pretend.
http://video.globo.com/Videos/0,,GOD0-5633-programa-1937,00.html
So true when I frequently say.....never ever trust a Brazilian !
LAUGH.....LAUGH....LAUGH....LAUGH....LAUGH