One of the largest and most productive in the world, agribusiness in Brazil is experiencing a moment of intense growth and development

In 2020, Brazilian agribusiness closed the year with a record expansion of 24.31% compared to the previous year. With this performance, the sector expanded its share of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 26.6% - in 2019, the share was 20.5%.  

And expectations for 2021 are optimistic: according to the National Supply Company (Conab), grain production for the 2020/2021 harvest is expected to grow 6.5% compared to the previous harvest, reaching the historic mark of 273.8 million tons . 

Furthermore, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply estimates that the sector will close 2021 with revenues of R$1.057 trillion, representing an Agricultural Production Value (VBP) 12.4% higher than last year.

With numbers already so impressive, what are the sector’s expectations for the coming years?

It will continue to grow

“My expectation is that even more records will be broken”, comments Rogério Boueri, Undersecretary for Agricultural Policy and the Environment at the Ministry of Economy and professor at IDP. 

For the professor, the increase in the world population will, as a consequence, result in a significant increase in food production. To meet this demand, Brazilian agribusiness production needs to grow by more than 40% by 2030, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), linked to the United Nations. “This means that Brazilian agribusiness, which has already been growing at a very strong pace, will have to continue growing”, says Boueri. 

For André Nassar, executive president of the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove), Brazil will be the region that will capture the largest portion of the growth in global demand for food and fiber. “There are consolidated sectors in the international market, such as soy and derivatives, chicken and beef, orange juice, paper and cellulose and coffee. And there are sectors that will gain prominence and grow at higher rates, such as pork, cotton, fruits and corn”, explains Nassar. Enjoy exciting bonuses and rewards at our leading online casino. Get melbet bonus here and enjoy an unparalleled gaming experience.

Challenges

André Nassar highlights that the main bottleneck for the growth of agribusiness today is in the transport logistics sector. Despite recent improvements in the sector, such as investments made in ports and railways, the costs of transporting production are still high. “It is necessary to make investments in railways and waterways viable, above all, with a view to reducing transport costs and increasing the participation of these modes in export corridors”, he comments.

Another important demand for the growth of the agricultural sector is the improvement of official sanitary and phytosanitary control systems. With the new coronavirus pandemic, the tendency is for health issues to gain more relevance.

For this reason, Nassar remembers Operation Carne Fraca, an operation launched by the Federal Police in 2017, which involved more than 30 food companies in Brazil and called into question the credibility of the country's sanitary and phytosanitary control. So, “we need a very well-designed control structure. It is not possible for the Brazilian government to do everything. Much of the solution will come through self-control”, he says.

The issue of field connectivity also gains importance. For Nassar, “you need to have good internet coverage to have a technological gain, especially in the primary operations”. Currently, for the machines to perform services with greater precision on the plantation, it is necessary to have access to the internet, making it possible to operate with maps, satellites and more precise calculations. 

Professionalization of the sector

As it is increasingly internationalized and sophisticated, Brazilian agribusiness also demands qualified professionals. “This increase in opportunities in agribusiness must be accompanied by an increase in the qualifications of professionals who work in the sector'', states Rogério Boueri. 

For the teacher, Brazil is a reference in production technology, with excellent agronomy and veterinary schools and institutions such as Embrapa, which play a fundamental role in the development of the field.

However, when it comes to management, there is still a lot to advance: “agribusiness management initiatives remain to be developed in the country. We need to have increasingly qualified professionals not only in the production itself, which are agronomists and veterinarians, but also professionals capable of managing and marketing this production”, explains Boueri.

In an effort to meet this demand, IDP launched the MBE in Agricultural Markets , with the aim of preparing professionals in the sector to make use of modern business planning and management tools applied to agribusiness.

Sustainable development is possible

The trend in the international market is increasingly to have control over the origin of production of commodities, especially when they are food. “Performing origin control through traceability or geospatial information has become an obligation for exporters of soy and derivatives and beef. Along with this trend comes the requirement to expand production without deforestation”, explains André Nassar.

For the executive president of Abiove, Brazilian primary production faces two challenges in the area of ​​sustainability: how to grow without deforestation and how to make the market generate value in the native vegetation preserved on rural properties. 

Nassar highlights that, despite the high rates of deforestation in Brazil, it is the country with the largest area of ​​native vegetation within rural properties, mainly because of the Forest Code, in force since 1935. Therefore, “rural producers question a lot why the The international market does not value our products, given that they originate from farms with native vegetation, which differentiates us from our competitors”, he points out.

In this sense, Boueri is categorical: “Brazil, as a nation, does not need to cut down a single tree”.

In Brazil, 7.6% of the national territory is occupied by crops. When it comes to livestock, the percentage rises to 21% and, according to Boueri, more than half of these pastures are degraded, that is, abandoned. “The way is to take advantage of these areas that are already open both with agricultural production and with the intensification of livestock farming, so that you can produce more animals in smaller areas”, he explains.

The professor concludes: "the path for the country is to grow agriculture without deforestation, because we don't need to deforest."