Brazil’s Commodity Heartland Ships $45.7B but Stays Stuck

Minas Gerais exports reached an all-time high of $45.7 billion in 2025, cementing the inland state’s role as one of Brazil’s most important economic engines — and exposing the structural challenge that defines its trajectory. The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that for every $100 Brazil exported last year, $13 came from Minas, a landlocked state the size of France with 21 million people, no seaport, and an economy built on what lies beneath its soil: iron, gold, niobium, coffee, and soybeans.

For international readers unfamiliar with Brazil’s internal geography, Minas Gerais matters because it is the country’s commodity heartland. It produces the iron ore that feeds Chinese steel mills, the coffee that fills global supply chains, and the niobium — a rare metal essential for aerospace alloys — of which Brazil controls over 90 percent of world supply, almost entirely from the city of Araxa in western Minas.

The Numbers Behind the Record

The $45.7 billion figure represents an 8.6 percent increase over 2024 and the highest value since records began in 1997. The state posted a trade surplus of $27.3 billion — second only to Rio de Janeiro nationally — and reached 216 trading partners, the most since 2019. Total trade flow hit $64 billion when imports of $18.3 billion are included.

The export mix tells the familiar story: iron ore and concentrates accounted for 26.7 percent, coffee for 24.7 percent, gold for 7 percent, soybeans for 6 percent, and ferroalloys for 5.5 percent. China absorbed 35 percent of shipments, followed by the United States at 9.3 percent. Asia as a whole took 45.2 percent of everything Minas sold abroad.

Signs of Industrial Diversification

The bright spot is manufacturing. Minas Gerais’ transformation industry exports grew 45 percent since 2021, from $13.1 billion to $19 billion. Stellantis’ Betim plant — the company’s largest production hub in Brazil — shipped a record 158,000 vehicles in 2025, up 36 percent year-on-year, with Argentina absorbing 44 percent of output and new markets opening beyond South America.

In coffee, the Cooxupe cooperative — one of the world’s largest, responsible for 24 percent of Minas’ production — posted record revenue despite slightly lower export volumes, investing in full traceability and sustainability certification to command premium prices. But US tariffs on Brazilian coffee products, including soluble coffee, disrupted new contracts and kept surcharges in place.

The Challenge Ahead for Minas Gerais Exports

Economists warn that the record obscures a structural weakness. Ana Paula Avellar of the Federal University of Uberlandia noted that while Minas has advanced in vehicles, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals, these sectors have not yet altered the fundamental composition of the export basket. The real opportunity, she argues, lies in adding technology and sustainability to the processing of Minas’ own commodities rather than shipping them raw.

Leonardo Baldez Augusto, former credit coordinator at the Minas industrial federation FIEMG, pointed to deeper structural barriers: low technological density, expensive logistics through road and rail corridors to ports in other states, and tax complexity that penalizes sophisticated supply chains. “International competitiveness today depends less on pure cost and more on systemic productivity, technological integration, and continuous innovation,” he said. For a state that powers much of Brazil’s economy from underground, the question is no longer how much Minas can export — but whether it can move up the value chain before the world stops paying premium prices for raw materials.