The first estimates of the value of agricultural production (VBP) for this year show the number of R $ 515.9 billion, 5.2% below 2017 (R $ 544.2 billion). The amount of crops is R $ 346.1 billion, and livestock, of R $ 169.8 billion. According to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAP) on Tuesday, they are down from 5.7% and 4.1% respectively last year.
Among 17 crops, eight have been showing increased revenues this year. They are, cotton, with an increase of 15.4%; (8.1%), cocoa (8%), coffee (3.6%), castor bean (68.7%), soybean (0.8%), tomato (35.1%) and wheat 48.9%). According to José Garcia Gasques, the general coordinator for Studies and Analysis of the Secretariat of Agricultural Policy, “this group has been benefiting from higher prices than last year, and also from increases in production. This is the case of soybeans, a product that, in the last five years, has presented value of upward production. In addition, it leads production with R $ 120.4 billion, representing 34.7% of the value of the crops. The others show discontinuity in the trajectory of value. “
In the group that presented the lowest values in comparison with 2017, the highest decreases occurred in rice (-7.9%), sugarcane (-11.9%), beans (-26.4%), orange ( -21.5%) corn (-12.2%) and grape (-30%). Maize, sugar cane and orange have a significant share of the total value, so their results have a strong impact on overall agriculture revenues, explains the general coordinator of Studies and Analyzes.
The value of livestock production fell 4.1% in relation to 2017, affected by the unfavorable performance of poultry, pork, milk and eggs. In Gasques’s assessment, “all these products have lower prices this year than in 2017. Chicken meat has been showing continued price decline in the last two years. The cattle ranch, practically maintains the same result in relation to last year, R $ 70.6 billion and leads the billing of livestock.
Regional results show that the leadership of the Midwest continues, followed by the South, Southeast, Northeast and North. As noted in the previous report, it is the first time that this happens because the South maintained itself as leader until last year. Among the states, Mato Grosso occupies the first position in the production value, hitherto occupied by São Paulo.