Gaucho agribusiness exported US $ 1.101 billion in April, according to data from the Foreign Trade Report of Agribusiness of RS, released by Farsul on Tuesday (15). The value represents 68% of the total marketed by the state. In comparison with the same period last year, there was an increase of 11.8%. Despite a significant drop in sales of chickens and pigs, beef resumed growth. Rice is also a highlight, reaching a 223% increase in volume and 171% in the value traded in the first four months, with strong influence of the PEP and PEPRO auctions.
The European Union embargo resulted in a 16.6% drop in chicken meat exports. The pigs also followed the movement, with retraction of 52.2%. The meats group, with this, registered -23.4% in the marketed value. The result was not worse due to the recovery of beef that had an increase of 29.8%. A similar situation occurred with the complex soybean group. While soybean oil (-15%) and soybeans (-0.3%) showed retraction. However, the group grew by 10.6% thanks to the performance of soybean meal, which increased by 193%. The group “Smoke and its Products” also had a good result, with growth of 130%, as well as “Forest Products”, with 47.5%.
The performance of rice in April, which increased by 149%, was not enough to reverse the scenario of the “Cereals” group, which dropped 37.2%. However, in the accumulated period, rice exports were the result of the first four months of the year, together with Soybean Complex (36.4%), Beef Bovine (40%), Smoke and its Products (107%) and Forest Products (6, 2%), which guaranteed an increase of 28.5% in the four-month period compared to the same period in 2017. Between March and April 2018, there was an increase of 7.1% in value and 15% in volume exported. China remains the main destination of agribusiness in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, accounting for 40% of the exported value. In second place is the United States with 4.5% and third with South Korea, with 3%.