According to information from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Brazil ran a trade surplus of US$ 639 million in the second week of this month. During the week, exports totaled US$ 2.719 billion and imports, US$ 2.08 billion.
So far this month, the trade surplus is US$ 1.257 billion, with exports of US$ 4.749 billion and imports of US$ 3.492 billion.
From January until the second week of July this year, the trade surplus is US$ 15.244 billion, a figure 18.8% higher than recorded in the same period of 2008 (US$ 12.831 billion).
In the accumulated result up until last week, exports totaled US$ 74.701 billion and imports, US$ 59.457 billion.
Agribusiness Exports
Foreign sales of soy and its products, sugar and alcohol, and tobacco and its products boosted Brazilian exports in June. There was growth of 54% in shipments of tobacco and its products, of 48.9% in soy products and of 21.6% in sugar and alcohol products.
Overall exports grew 12% over the same period of last year, having totaled US$ 7.3 billion, with a surplus of US$ 6.6 billion.
Exports of soy and its products grew mostly as a result of shipments of soybean and chaff. Exports of soybean grew 71.3% in June over the same month of last year, from US$ 1.5 billion to US$ 2.577 billion.
In terms of volume, there was growth of 74.2%, with prices 1.7% lower than in 2008. Shipments of soy chaff grew 11.1% volume-wise, with an average price 8.4% higher. Thus, the export value grew more than the shipped volume, with an increase of 20.4%.
Exports of sugar and alcohol went from US$ 703 million to US$ 855 million, as a result of a 39.7% rise in sugar exports in June compared with the same month of 2008. Revenues from sugar sales totaled US$ 706 million.
Foreign sales of alcohol dropped by 24.5% in terms of value, having totaled US$ 150 million. In the last twelve months, Brazilian agribusiness exports totaled US$ 69.4 billion.
There was a reduction in imports of agribusiness products in June. They went from US$ 950 million to US$ 721 million, reduction of 24.1%. However, imports of certain products, such as wheat, have increased.
The imported volume grew 34%, but an average cost reduction of 43.7% led Brazil to spend less on purchases of the product: US$ 108 million as against US$ 143 million in the same period of last year.
ABr
