Pesticide imports fall 50% in the year – 05/02/2023 – Shuttle

Imports of agrochemicals fell 49.9% in the first four months of this year, compared to the same period last year. Data released by Secex (Secretary of Foreign Trade) this Tuesday (2) indicate foreign purchases of 81 thousand tons from January to April, practically half of the 161 thousand tons of the same months of 2022.

Spending on imports, however, retreated at a slower pace, since prices remained at high levels for most of this year. Among the products classified by the Ministry of Agriculture as pesticides are insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, among others.

Brazil is also importing less fertilizer. After the acceleration of purchases in the first half of last year, the entry of fertilizers into the country fell to 10.4 million tons in the first four months, 7% less than in the same period of 2022.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused prices to accelerate last year. This year, due to the decline in prices, national spending on foreign purchases of fertilizers fell to US$ 4.4 billion, 28% less.

In addition to a drop in spending on imports, the agribusiness trade balance is benefiting from increased exports. In the first four months of this year, the five main products in the agribusiness balance generated US$ 37.2 billion, 7% above the figures from January to April last year.

With a record harvest, Brazil has the possibility of placing a greater volume of products on the foreign market. Soybean sales, leader in exports, already amount to 33 million tons, 3% more, despite the delay in harvesting in several regions of the country.

Brazil faces, however, a different price reality than in 2022. In April, average beef prices fell 23%, compared to the same month last year. Cotton fell by 17%; soybeans, 8.3%; coffee, 8%, and corn, 7%.

Meat, products that have the second largest participation in the agribusiness balance, generated US$ 6.5 billion in the year, 5% less than in 2022. Price drop and interruption of purchases by China, due to the atypical case of cow crazy, reduced the volume and revenues of exported beef.

In April, average exports per working day of this protein fell 26%, compared to 2022. In the same period, chicken rose 12%, and pork, 20.4%.

Secex data show that revenues from agricultural exports rose 14% in April, compared to the same month of 2022. The exported volume was up 17%, but average prices retreated 8% on average.

One of the exceptions was sugar, which saw an adjustment of 23% in average export values, but the volume traded fell by 22%.

Fall The soybean bag started the month below R$ 140 in Paraná. The oilseed has been recording a sharp drop in recent weeks, according to monitoring by Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics).

Fall 2 Soybeans have not registered such a low price for the producer since September 2020. In March last year, the bag reached R$ 207 for Paraná farmers.

accompanies Corn also follows soybeans in the fall. A bag of cereal dropped to R$ 64.5 at the beginning of this month in the region of Campinas (SP), the lowest nominal value since October 2020.

accompanies 2 According to research by Cepea, a bag of corn was traded at R$ 104 in March last year.

harvest plentiful While soybean production was close to 155 million tons, the advance of the corn harvest indicates record projections of 126 million tons for the cereal.

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