Brazilian agribusiness exports reached an all-time high in April, breaking the US $ 10 billion barrier for the first time. The previous record for foreign sales for the months of April occurred in April 2013, when exports were $ 9.65 billion. The value of April this year (10,220 million) was 25% higher than that of April 2019 (8,180 million dollars).

The record was mainly due to the increase in soybean shipments, which grew 73.4%, with 16.3 million tons, or almost 7 million tons more in this month compared to the previous year. China was the main import market for the Brazilian product, with the purchase of 11.79 million tons or 72.3% of the total quantity exported.

Soybean sales revenue in April this year increased from $ 3.3 billion (April / 2019) to $ 5.46 billion (April / 2020), an increase of $ 2.16 billion.

In the context of the international crisis of Covid-19, there was a strong growth in the demand for Brazilian soybeans, with anticipated exports of the product, explains the note from the Agribusiness Trade Balance, prepared by the Ministry of Commerce and International Relations (SCRI ) of the Ministry of Agriculture. , Livestock and Supply (Map).

This increase, together with the reduction in the demand for other products in the trade balance (-27.1%) helped to increase the share of agro-industrial products in the total exported by Brazil. The participation of agribusinesses in Brazilian exports in the month studied reached a record level of 55.8%. In April 2019, the participation was 42.2%.

On the other hand, imports of agro-industrial products fell from US $ 1.21 billion (April / 2019) to US $ 1.01 billion (April / 2020), a decrease of 16.7%.

In the first four months of this year, Brazilian agribusiness exports totaled US $ 31.40 billion, an increase of 5.9% compared to the same period of the previous year. The growth of exports in the sector resulted in an increase in the quantity shipped, with an increase of 11.1%, while the price index suffered a 4.7% reduction.

According to the SCRI note, foreign sales represented the best accumulated result between January and April in the historical series and were responsible for almost half of total Brazilian exports (46.6%).

Imports, in turn, reached US $ 4,570 million (- 4.5%). As a result, the agribusiness trade balance surplus was US $ 26.83 billion in the period.

Exports of soybeans reached a record for the historical series in the four-month period, both in value (11,500 million) and in quantity (33.66 million tons), despite the 4.2% drop in the average product price.

China was responsible for 73.4% of the Brazilian grain purchases in the first four months of 2020, with an increase of 26.6% compared to the same period of the previous year.

Meat was the main product among meats in the four-month period, representing 45.3% of the exported value. Fresh meat sales recorded a historical record for the four-month period in terms of value (US $ 2,130 million) and quantity (469,760 tons). China accounted for almost half of Brazilian exports of the product in the period (49.6%), being the market that contributed the most to growth of 26.5% in relation to 2019.