|
The Brazilian agribusiness exports yielded US$ 8.789 billion during the first three months of the year, with a 12% increase in comparison to the first quarter in 2004.
According to information released yesterday, April 11, by Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, this is a record for the period, in spite of the drought that hit the southern region of the country in the last months and caused losses in the crops.
The foreign purchases in the sector, in its turn, added up to US$ 1.223 billion, an increase in 0.58% in relation to the first three months last year.
The surplus for the period was favorable to Brazil in US$ 7.566 billion, also a historic record and 14.2% greater than what was registered in the first quarter of 2004.
According to the Ministry, the greatest increases were registered in the exports of meat (bovine, swine and poultry), sugar and alcohol, wood and wooden products, coffee, fruit juices, tobacco, vegetables and greens, milk, dairy products and eggs.
Concerning the destinations, the shipments to the Middle East increased in 28.7% and to Africa in 19.4%. The greatest increase, however, was registered in exports to Oceania (48.7%). In absolute terms, the greatest importers were, in this order, the European Union, the Nafta (excluding Mexico) and Asia.
In March alone the sector's exports yielded US$ 3.423 billion, an increase in 5% in comparison to the same month last year. The imports, however, dropped 8.3% to US$ 454 million, which resulted in a surplus of US$ 2.97 billion, or 7.4% more than in March 2004.
The products that influenced the trade balance the most in the month were meats, sugar and alcohol and coffee. The shipments increased the most to Asia, the Nafta, the Mercosur and Africa.
Nearly US$ 40 Billion in 12 months
In the last 12 months shipments of Brazilian agribusiness yielded US$ 39.965 billion, value 22% greater than what was registered in the period from April 2003 to March 2004.
With US$ 4.887 billion in imports, the surplus favourable to Brazil was of US$ 35.078 billion. In this period, the products that influenced exports the most were the soy complex (grains, chaff and oil), meats, wood and wooden products and sugar and alcohol.
Africa (+37.7% and the Middle East (+33%) lost only to the South American countries, excluding the Mercosur (Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), as the destinations that increased the most in the last 12 months.
Anba
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
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. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
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. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
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.