Brazil delivers record trade surplus in 2023

As expected, Brazil’s trade balance ended 2023 with a record surplus — of USD 98.8 billion, 60.6 percent higher than the previous year and almost USD 6 billion higher than the government’s projections in October. 

As we showed several times throughout last year, the result was mainly due to the trading of record volumes of agricultural commodities, which far offset the drop in prices and global demand.

Brazilian agriculture and livestock exports amounted to USD 81.5 billion, a 9 percent expansion from the previous year. The country’s record 2022-2023 soybean crop of 154.6 million tons significantly influenced this massive volume hike.

The results come mainly from the commodities that Brazil ships abroad. As The Brazilian Report flagged in May, the massive increases in Brazil’s export volumes have offset lower commodity prices, so much so that the country has broken record surpluses almost every month since March. While agricultural export volumes grew 23.4 percent annually, prices decreased by 10.3 percent. 

For the first time, Brazil exported more than USD 100 billion to a single destination: China. Combined with Macau and Hong Kong, the country purchased more than USD 105 billion, accounting for 45 percent of Brazilian exports. Europe and North America (particularly the U.S.) follow, accounting for 17 and 15 percent of exports, respectively.

In an online press conference this afternoon, Tatiana Prazeres, Brazil’s foreign trade secretary, said lower prices and not lower volumes, were the main cause of the drop in import numbers. 

“This is the case of fertilizers, for example, imports of which fell by more than 44 percent in terms of prices but volume grew 7.5 percent. And this is positive because it reflects lower costs to import a larger volume of products,” she said. Brazilian imports fell 8.6 percent in value and just 4.6 percent in volume in 2023.

Ms. Prazeres said that the government projects a result similar to 2023 for this year, BRL 94.4 billion, as even with lower economic growth forecasts, it sees the country’s trade balance operating at a completely new, higher level.

• #agribusiness
• #currency
• #trade