list of most of Brazil's main agricultural
products and exports:
* SUGAR: As the world's largest producer and exporter of
the sweetener, it's expected to produce a record 40.9 million
tonnes of sugar from cane this season and dominate half the
world's sugar market.
* COFFEE: As the world's largest producer and exporter, it
produces between 35 million and 55 million 60-kg bags of coffee
annually, mostly arabica. It controls about 30 percent of the
international market in the bean.
* FCOJ: As the world's largest producer and exporter of
orange juice, it accounts for roughly one in every two glasses
of orange juice consumed in the world today.
* BEEF: Brazil has the world's largest commercial cattle
herd of around 200 million head. Although it consumes about 80
percent of its beef at home, Brazil still managed to become the
largest exporter of beef. It produces mostly Indicus breeds
like the Zebu and Nelore which are best suited for tropical
climates and most of the herd is grass-fed.
* POULTRY: With a fast expanding grain belt, Brazil has
leveraged its corn and soy production to become the world's
largest exporter of poultry meat and a fast growing exporter of
pork. Feed account for about 70 percent of pork and poultry
production costs.
* SOYBEANS: After the creation of commercial soybean
varieties suitable for its tropical growing seasons in the
1970s, Brazil soon after vaulted into the world's No. 2 soybean
producer and exporter and one day will likely overtake the
United States as the leading producer of the oilseed.
* CORN: Until recently it has been only a marginal corn
exporter, keeping 95 percent of the 55 million tonnes-plus of
corn produced at home to feed its booming pork and poultry
industries. But in the past several years, Brazil has exported
around 7 to 11 million tonnes a year, making it the No. 3 world
exporter of the grain.
* COCOA: Brazil ranks sixth among the world's cocoa growers
but was No. 2 only a few decades ago until witch's broom
disease devastated its plantations, slashing output by more
than half.
* TIMBER: With abundant rain, sun and land inside the
tropics, Brazil - as with most of the above crops - is the
world's lowest cost producer of pulp from timber. Eucalyptus
trees have a growing cycles of approximately seven years,
compared with 10 to 12 years in Chile and 25 years in North
America and Europe.
* COTTON: Brazil was only a marginal producer of cotton but
burst into prominence this year jumping into the No. 4 slot of
world exporters of the fiber. This comes on the heels of
winning an international trade dispute at the World Trade
Organization against U.S. subsidies. Brazil produces close to 2
million tonnes of high grade long fiber cotton lint. *
TOBACCO: Brazil is the world's largest producer of
tobacco, cultivation of which is concentrated in the southern
growing states.
* ETHANOL: Brazil is typically the world's largest exporter
of cane-based ethanol, shipping around 3 billion liters a year.
This pales in comparison with the 28 billion liters that it
produces annually for the domestic flex-fuel car fleet.
(Reporting by Reese Ewing; Editing by Alden Bentley) |
