African countries have increased their share in Brazilian agribusiness exports this year, according to data from Secex (Secretary of Foreign Trade) compiled by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.
Imports have been mainly focused on sugar, meats, and cereals. From January to September, the nations spent USD 7.3 billion on agribusiness products, 8% more than in the same period last year. Meat purchases, mainly chicken, reached USD 1.12 billion.
Brazil has been focusing efforts on increasing meat exports to countries on the continent, which has 1.4 billion inhabitants. Although their participation is still small compared to large importers, African expenses in Brazil exceed those of Mercosur and Aladi (Latin American Integration Association) countries.
Increasing those sales is one of the focuses, for example, of the sector promotion agreement of poultry and pig farming between the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil), renewed last month.
The expectation is to generate over USD 4 billion in business over the next two years.