RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s agribusiness exports, one of the mainstays of the economy, grew 4.1 percent in 2020 compared to the year before, topping 100 billion U.S. dollars for the second time on record, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply said on Tuesday, January 12th.
Agribusiness exports last year totaled 100.806 billion U.S. dollars, the second-highest figure since hitting 101.17 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the ministry said in a statement.
Last year’s agribusiness exports accounted for 48 percent of Brazil’s total sales abroad.
Meanwhile, agribusiness imports dipped 5.2 percent last year, to register 13.05 billion U.S. dollars, driving the sector’s surplus to 87.76 billion U.S. dollars.
Soy, in its different forms (grain, oil, meal), was the sector’s main export product, amounting to 101.04 million tons in volume and 35.24 billion U.S. dollars in value.
The second most exported product last year was meat, which totaled 17.16 billion U.S. dollars in revenue.
Beef accounted for almost half (49.4 percent) of that revenue, rising 11.1 percent compared to 2019.