Brasília, September 19, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Brazilian agrobusiness achieved a record surplus of US$ 16.15 billion between January and August of this year, with exports of US$ 19.25 billion and imports of US$ 3.1 billion. This represents a 38.4% improvement over the performance of the sector during the same period last year.

Between January and August, 2002, exports totalled US$ 14.7 billion, and imports, US$ 3 billion, earning the country US$ 11.7 billion. The soy complex (beans, meal, and oil) was responsible for 23% of this activity. These data were released on Thursday (18) by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA).

Export revenues in general grew 31.2% over these eight months, which means that agrobusiness plays an increasingly important part in Brazil's trade balance. Foreign sales of agricultural goods increased from 39.7% to 42.3% of overall exports, when the January-August periods of 2002 and 2003 are compared.

According to CNA technical adviser, Paulo Mustafaga, agrobusiness is expected to export US$ 27 billion and import US$ 4 billion this year, producing a surplus of US$ 23 billion. The growth in the trade surplus was stimulated by the soy complex, with total exports of US$ 5.43 billion in the January-August period, 73.6% more than the US$ 3.13 billion registered during the same period in 2002.

The performance of the sector, according to the CNA, is due to a set of favorable factors, such as the new record harvest, estimated at 52 million tons, improvement in the exchange rate, and the increase in world prices, as a result of the expansion in global consumption, which should attain 174 million tons this year.

Soybean prices rose 18%, from an average of US$ 179.6 per ton, in the January-August period in 2002, to US$ 211.7 per ton, in the same period in 2003. The increase amounted to 33.6%.

Meat also performed well during these first eight months. Sales attained US$ 2.;44 billion, 29.7% more than export proceeds during the same period last year (US$ 1.88 billion).

Imports, although far less expressive than exports, also experienced a slight evolution, of 3.2%, during these eight months, compared with the same period last year. The items that had the greatest weight were wheat, cotton, and rice. (DAS)