From January to September, exports totaled US$ 111.783 billion and imports, US$ 90.508 billion.
In September alone, the trade surplus was US$ 1.330 billion, with US$ 13.864 billion in exports and US$ 12.534 billion in imports. In the last two weeks of last month, a trade deficit was recorded.
In the fourth week of September, the deficit was US$ 23 million, as imports (US$ 3.257 billion) exceeded exports (US$ 3.234 billion). In the fifth week of the month, the trade deficit was US$ 10 million, with US$ 1.878 billion in exports and US$ 1.888 billion in imports.
Decline in Exports
The global crisis should prompt a decline of approximately US$ 40 billion in Brazilian exports compared with 2008. The analysis was made by the secretary of Foreign Trade of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Welber Barral.
He believes that the result, by the end of the year, should be even lower than the US$ 160 billion previously forecasted by the ministry. The most likely estimate is that the figure should be close to the one recorded in 2007, i.e. US$ 158 billion, much less than the US$ 198 billion recorded in 2008. According to Barral, it should take the country two or three years to attain the volume shipped last year.
To the secretary, Brazilian exports are reflecting the reduction of global demand. "Domestic demand is doing very well. The problem is that other countries are not recovering at the same pace as Brazil is," he said.
Cattle and Chicken
Cattle slaughter increased by 5.5% in Brazil in the second quarter this year, in comparison with the three previous months. The data were culled from a survey disclosed by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). Compared with the same period of 2008, however, there was a decline of 10.2%.
The Brazilian state that recorded the highest output was Mato Grosso, with 13.6%. The Midwest and Southeast regions answered to 58.5% of bovine slaughter in the country. According to the IBGE, the quarterly data reflect an attempt of slaughterhouses to adapt their costs to the bearish market scenario.
As for chicken slaughter, there was a reduction of 2.4% in the second quarter this year over the same period of 2008, according to the institute’s survey. A total of 1.168 billion animals were slaughtered. Compared with the first quarter this year, however, as with bovines, there was growth of 3.8%.
The South region accounted for the majority of operations, with 60.1% of chicken slaughtering. The state of Paraná had the highest output. In other regions that do not produce as much, though, there was significant growth as well. Such was the case of Mato Grosso, in which slaughtering rose by 20.2%. Chicken egg production grew 3.6% in the second half this year compared with the same period in 2008.