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 The Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade disclosed this Monday, September 3, the balance of trade figures for the month of August, and for the first eight months of the year. The survey shows that imports are growing at a higher rate than that of exports.
In the first eight months of the year, exports rose by 15.9%, to stand at US$ 102.4 billion. Imports, on the other hand, grew by 27.8%, to reach US$ 74.9 billion.
Therefore, the accumulated trade surplus (exports minus imports) from January until August increased to US$ 27.5 billion, a 7.51% reduction compared with the US$ 29.7 billion recorded during the same period of 2006.
In the month of August, imports also grew proportionally more than exports, despite the fact that the two sectors have reached new record highs. Foreign sales stood at US$ 15.1 billion, an increase of 6.94% over the previous month. Imports were also the highest this year, at a monthly volume of US$ 11.5 billion and an increase of 7.36% over the month of July.
The trade balance surplus for August stood at US$ 3.535 billion - 5.61% more than in the previous month, but 22.37% less than recorded in August last year.
Wheat Production Doubles
The Brazilian wheat production should double this year, to reach four million tons. The forecast was made last week, during a meeting of the Sector Chamber for the Production Chain of Winter Crops, in the city of Esteio, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The Chamber is comprised of government officials and representatives of the Brazilian production sector in the field.
"The agricultural policy adopted by the government has encouraged farmers. We believe that the Brazilian production will reach four thousand tons, the equivalent of 40% of domestic consumption," said the executive secretary at the Chamber of Winter Crops, and general manager for Cereals and Annual Cultures at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Silvio Farnese.
To Farnese, the minimum price policy underway for 400 Brazilian reais (US$ 203) per tonne is another great stimulus to Brazilian wheat producers. "Another advantage for Brazilian wheat producers is the worldwide stabilization of production, which represents an increase in the price of the commodity that is also reflecting in the Brazilian market," he said.
ABr, Anba
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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. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Funny too that Brazil sings nearly daily of how much agricultural products they export.....but rarely rarely rarely....that you are one of the world largest IMPORTER of....WHEAT !