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 The trade balance surplus of the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo was US$ 6.92 billion between January and August this year. Exports totaled US$ 10.36 billion and imports reached US$ 3.44 billion. The surplus is 8.6% greater than in the same period in 2006. And exports rose 13,8% in comparison to last year.
Despite the growth in the surplus, participation of São Paulo state agribusiness in the trade balance dropped in the period: last year it was 27.3%. This year, it has dropped to 25.9%. Still, it represents over one quarter of the total.
The reduction, although small, is due to an international reduction in the price of sugar, one of the main products exported by the state of São Paulo, according to José Sidnei Gonçalves, a researcher at the Agricultural Economics Institute (IEA), responsible for a study for the Agriculture and Supply Secretariat of the state of São Paulo.
"When the price of sugar rises, the participation of the state of São Paulo in the agribusiness trade balance rises. This year, as prices are low, the participation drops," stated Gonçalves.
"Now it is time for central Brazil to appear more, as soy prices are higher." Between 2005 and 2006, he recalls, the price of sugar doubled. From 2006 to 2007, it dropped by half.
The main products shipped by the state were the sugarcane complex, alcohol and sugar, beef, pulp and paper and citric juice. And of the US$ 10.36 billion in exports, the largest share is of processed products.
"Agribusiness of the state of São Paulo has a great differential: the power the sector has to add value. Here, 85% of the products exported undergo some kind of industrialization and/or processing, whereas in Brazilian exports as a whole, the level is 56%," stated Agriculture secretary João Sampaio.
"This shows that the generation of riches of the state of São Paulo comes from its capacity to industrialize and from its infrastructure. One example is the beef chain: we do not have the largest herd, but we are great exporters and processors of animals slaughtered in other states."
Imports
The state of São Paulo imported US$ 3.44 billion in agribusiness products from January to August this year - 26% more than in 2006. According to Gonçalves, agricultural imports of the state are mainly parts for the assembly of machinery and equipment. "State imports sustain the modern Brazilian agribusiness," he said.
In general, state exports totaled US$ 33.19 billion between January and August - 32.4% of foreign sales of the country. And imports, US$ 30.49 billion. The surplus was US$ 2.7 billion. The bilateral trade of the state, however, was US$ 63.68 billion in the period. It is over one third of the trade of the whole country, which ended at US$ 187.39 billion.
The state of São Paulo has 645 cities and over 40 million inhabitants. That is where the largest industrial park in the country and the main economic production is located. It answers to 31% of the GDP of the country.
Agribusiness is developed throughout the interior of the state of São Paulo and varied cultures ranging from sugarcane to banana. Agribusiness exports are fundamental to maintain the foreign trade surplus of the state.
Without agribusiness, from January to August this year, there would be a trade deficit of US$ 4.22 billion in the trade balance, instead of a surplus of US$ 2.7 billion.
Anba - www.anba.com.br
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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. 
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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. 
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The new trend in Brazil is to show most stats in US$...because it is weak.
Thererfore stats are simply....ROSIER THAN THEY ACTUALLY ARE IN LOCAL CURRENCY !
Stupid questions :
- when the US$ will be strong again, will you switch all your stats back to your local currency, so that stats will stay....ROSIER ???
- has Brazil already dollarized the Brazilian Real ?
Good idea for Brazil :
- Why dont you show all your stats in the Venezuelian currency ? The only currency in the world that lost over 50 % in the last five years....against the weak US$ !!!!!
Your growth AND ALL YOUR STATS would be IMPRESSIVE !