Agricultural Exports May Help Brazil Surpass Economic Crisis

A Brazilian diplomat who works with the World Trade Organization affirms that it is possible to increase the market for Brazilian products overseas if the country is able to remove trade barriers. He also claims that breaking the barriers could help Brazil surpass its economic crisis faster.

The same idea is expressed by Celso de Tarso Pereira during the fourth edition of the Agriculture Forum of South America: “We have competitive products, produced without subsidies, they should have unimpeded access in key markets”. Pereira explains that the main challenge for Brazilian exporters are enormous restrictions, quotas and tariffs. Apart from quotas and tariffs there are often restrictions by foreign buyers on Brazilian agricultural products, under the pretext that they do not follow international health standards.

In order to resolve this problem, Pereira proposes direct negotiations with potential importers, ‘to convince them that Brazilian products meet international health standards’.

The Brazilian government believes that by removing barriers and increasing agricultural exports, Brazil could surpass its economic crisis in a shorter time. According to the International Relations Secretary, at the Ministry of Agriculture, the government aims to increase the Brazilian agribusiness participation in world trade from the current 6.9% to 10%.

Some Interesting Products Exported from Brazil

Everyone knows that Brazil is one of the top commodity producers in the world, but do you know the Brazil also exports badminton rackets? Or tortoise shells? This article outlines some unexpected items exported from Brazil.

As the world’s sixth largest economy, Brazil ranks third among the world’s major agricultural exporters and fourth for food products. The Brazilian exports are basically composed of commodities, that represents more than 70% of the total amount of these operations, as informed by the country’s Foreign Trade Association. The other 30% is equivalent to other products, more specifically, to 4,292 different items and many of them are unexpected.

Human Hair

Apparently Brazil is a huge exporter of human hair. In 2012 the country gained 115,693.00 USD with the exportation of 536 kilos of this product. Israel and the United States were the main buyers of human hair.

Tortoise Shells

Tortoise parts granted Brazil almost 11,6 million USD in 2012, with 4.502 kg of the tortoise's shells, horns and other parts of the animal being exported abroad. New Zealand was the greatest purchaser, buying 4,5 tons of it. But what is the functionality of a tortoise shell? Well, basically people can make art with it. The product is used for handicraft works, especially in Central America and the Caribbean.

Lightning Rod

Brazilian weather is tropical, and being tropical the incidence of rains throughout the country is very common, the place has the largest occurrence of lightning in the world. So it's not a surprise that Brazil is a producer of lightning rods and an exporter of it. It is only the United States that imports lightning rods from Brazil.

Badminton Racket

This item is more curious than weird, the country doesn't have the habit or the culture of playing badminton, even though it exports badminton rackets. Being this sport more popular in Asian countries, the game generated to Brazil 1,297.99 USD in 2012. But the purchasers of Brazilian badminton equipment aren’t Asian, the only buyer of Brazilian badminton rackets is Aruba.

Ski Equipment

If the production and exportation of badminton rackets sounds strange to you, the production and exportation of ski equipment should be completely weird. Brazil is a tropical country with hot weather and a winter that's not so intense, but the country is actually an exporter of ski equipments to other Latin American countries and hot weather destinations, like Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Angola. Germany and Finland are also purchasers of the Brazilian products that generated an income of 37,725.00 USD for Brazil in 2012.