Brazil and Thailand sign memorandum of understanding for agricultural cooperation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Through the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (MAPA), the Brazilian Federal Government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on agricultural cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand, aiming to strengthen technology exchange and information in the sector.

The area of cooperation involves Brazilian and Thai agriculture, animal, aquatic, vegetable, soil, water resources management, and cooperatives. It also includes the development of agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ institutions; and agrarian biodiversity management and conservation. Another activity foreseen in the document is integrated pest management and ecological engineering. The memorandum also lists alternative energy, including production process and management.

The memorandum was signed on March 16 by the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Thailand, Chalermchai Sreeon, in the presence of the Ambassador of Brazil in Bangkok, José Borges dos Santos Júnior. The Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply, Tereza Cristina, signed the memorandum on March 11.

FORMS OF COOPERATION

The cooperation will be carried out foreseeing the exchange of information, technicians, and researchers; training, courses, seminars, elaboration of technical assistance projects, study visits, and other subjects of mutual interest.

Other forms of cooperation to promote development in agriculture in both countries will be through the exchange of knowledge in the field of agriculture and agribusiness, as agreed upon by the participants concerning knowledge exchange and technology transfer.

A Joint Agricultural Working Group (GTAC) will be formed to implement the provisions of this agreement and will meet every two years, alternately, in Thailand and Brazil. The Work Plan will be jointly developed from the first meeting of the GTAC.

The MOU will remain in force for five years and will be extended for additional five-year periods.

BILATERAL RELATIONS

Currently, Thailand is the largest importer of Brazilian agribusiness products from Southeast Asia. For Brazil, it represents a share in Thai trade of 2.09% and places Thailand among the five largest importers of Brazilian agribusiness products in 2021.

The soybean complex continues to be the most exported Brazilian agribusiness product to the Thai market. In 2021, the exports of the soy complex resulted in an amount of US$2.5 billion, which represented an increase of 28% over the previous year. Next was the export of leather, which reached US$41.2 million, an increase of almost 23% compared to the year 2020.

In third place in the Brazilian export list comes forest products with an increase of more than 26% over the previous year, totaling US$39.8 million, followed by beef exports, which leaped 58% in 2021, totaling US$34 million.

An increase was also observed in the volume of exports of other Brazilian agribusiness products such as cereals, oilseed products, cocoa, sugar and ethanol complex products, and beverages.

Thailand is a significant exporter of food, especially rice, natural rubber, chicken, sugar, processed tuna, tapioca flour, and shrimp. As a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the country has been strengthening its trade partnerships through free trade agreements already signed with several countries in Asia and Oceania, considered strategic for the trade of its agricultural products.

In 2021, Brazil imported US$217.9 million in Thai agribusiness products, especially natural rubber, which represented 80% of imports, followed by rice, vegetable oils and extracts, seeds, and pet food.

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