Rising exports reinforce agriculture as a lever for economic recovery in Brazil
Agribusiness represented almost 48% of total Brazilian exports in the first four months of the year; the use of technological solutions is the way for the sector to maintain its prominence.
From January to April 2022, exports from national agribusiness grew 5% in volume and 34% in revenue compared to the same period of the previous year, according to research by the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea/USP). In the economic sphere, the record scenario not only strengthens the growth of the sector, but also leverages the entire Brazilian economy. With its share in the trade balance in this first four-month period of the year, agribusiness represented almost 48% of the country's total exports, generating sufficient resources to cover the trade deficit of the other sectors of the economy.
In addition to the growth in volume of exported products, the rising revenue is also due to the international economic scenario, in which prices in dollars rose by 28%, bringing a favorable impact on transactions in the segment. In the total for the year, agribusiness exports already total US$48.56 billion. The main destinations involve China, Europe and the United States.
Most of these positive results are due to investment in innovation: technology is responsible for more than 60% of total Brazilian productivity in agribusiness, according to a study by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) in partnership with the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). And the speed of implementation of innovations in the sector has grown more and more, bringing increases in productivity and process efficiency.
For the president of Hexagon's Agriculture division, which develops digital solutions for the field, the use of technology is the way for Brazil to keep production and exports up. "We are talking about more agile and optimised processes. Higher and better production, with less inputs, costs and pesticides. As such, we can continue to advance in production without increasing costs, generating an increasing profit for the segment," explains Bernardo de Castro.
In 2021, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Brazilian agribusiness grew 8.36% compared to the previous year. With statistics, the sector had a participation of approximately 27.5% in the national GDP, according to the Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics of USP. The value represents the largest collaboration of the segment in Brazil's GDP since 2004.