From January to September, exports from the State of São Paulo totaled US $ 38.72 billion (21.9% of the national total), while imports totaled US $ 45.77 billion (33.8% of the national total). generated a deficit of US $ 7.05 billion.
In the same period, agribusiness presented exports of US $ 12.68 billion, while imports totaled US $ 3.74 billion. The surplus of US $ 8.94 billion was important to reduce the deficit of the Paulista Trade Balance, according to the Institute of Agricultural Economics (IEA).
In the period analyzed, the five main groups in the São Paulo agribusiness exports were: sugar and ethanol complex (US $ 3.86 billion), followed by the meats sector (US $ 1.68 billion), soybean complex (US $ 1.67 billion), juices US $ 1.49 billion) and forest products (US $ 1.35 billion). These five aggregates accounted for 79.2% of the sector’s external sales in São Paulo, according to José Alberto Angelo, Carlos Nabil Ghobril and Marli Dias Mascarenhas Oliveira, IEA researchers.
The variations in the exported values of the main groups, with the exception of the sugar-alcohol complex that accumulated a 40.8% drop, compared to the same period in 2017, are in an upward trend: meat (+ 24.3%), soy complex (+ 30.6%), juices (+ 13.7%) and forest products (+ 5.6%). In addition, coffee, a traditional product of São Paulo agribusiness, with exports of US $ 378.58 million, also showed a drop compared to the previous year, the researchers point out. “These changes in foreign trade revenues are due to the composition of both prices and volumes exported,” they explain.
In 2018, China became the main destination of São Paulo’s agribusiness exports, with a share of 18.7%, surpassing the European Union with 16.9%. The export agenda for China is concentrated in the soy complex and in the meats, which together represent 79.9% of São Paulo’s exports to that country.
On the other hand, the European Union has a more diversified agenda, with juices accounted for 39.3% in the first nine months of 2018. The United States is followed by two juices (26.9 %) and the sugar-alcohol complex (25.2%), which together have more than 50% representativity.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.