According to information disclosed today by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, three days before the end of the month, exports from Brazil have yielded US$ 9.64 billion this year.
The value has already surpassed the total recorded on January last year, which was US$ 9.271 billion.
Imports amounted to US$ 7.313 billion, and also surpassed the total for January 2006. The trade balance surplus for the month was US$ 2.327 billion.
Last week, according to the Ministry, foreign sales reached US$ 2.383 billion, and imports added to US$ 1.711 billion, resulting on a US$ 672 million trade balance surplus in Brazil.
Chicken
Brazilian exports of chicken totaled US$ 3.2 billion last year, representing an 8.7% reduction when compared to 2005. Shipments totaled 2.71 million tons, a reduction of 4.7% when compared to the previous year, according to figures disclosed today (29) by the Brazilian Poultry Exporters Association (Abef).
Last year, the performance of Brazilian exports of chicken were affected by the shrinkage of imports by main consumers in Europe and Asia, due to cases of avian flu in countries on these continents in early 2006.
Another unfavorable factor was the appreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar, which reduced the profitability of export companies.
The countries in the Middle East were the main Brazilian chicken consumer markets. Last year, shipments totaled 754,720 tons, representing exports of US$ 821.88 million. The second greatest market in terms of volume was Asia, which imported 739,630 tons.
The Asian countries were the ones that provided greatest revenues to Brazil, with imports of US$ 881.67 million. Then came the European Union (EU), which purchased 351,470 tons, totaling US$ 684.4 million.
Apart from these markets, Brazil exported chicken to South America, Africa and Russia, which imported 185,810 tons alone, representing exports of US$ 199.17 million.
For this year, Abef forecasts are that shipment will total 2.85 million tons, an increase of 5% over 2006, with revenues of US$ 3.420 billion, a growth of 6.8% in the same comparison.
Foreign Tourists
Arrivals of passengers on domestic flights in Brazil ended last year with the highest figure in history. A total of 46.3 million passengers travelled between Brazilian airports on regular and chartered flights.
The number represents an increase of 7.38% when compared to the same period in 2005, when 43 million domestic arrivals were registered.