Soybean accounts for 16% of Brazilian exports in H1

Marcelo Camargo/Arquivo/Agência Brasil

Soybean accounted for 16% of Brazil's exports in the first half of this year, according to data from the Foreign Trade Indicator (Icomex). Calculated by the Brazilian Institute of Economics of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (Ibre FGV), the index also shows that iron ore, oil and soybean represented a third of the country's total exports in the period. 

The publication shows that China continued to be the main destination for Brazilian exports. In the first half of the year, sales to the Asian country grew 26%, even surpassing Brazil's total exports to all 28 European Union nations.

According to the Icomex, the depreciation of the real - which reached 11% between January and June - did not affect the Brazilian trade flow, especially in relation to imports. The survey highlights that "the exchange rate effect is not immediate, and other factors influence trade flows. In the case of imports, for example, the level of domestic activity is the main factor influencing trade flows, and GDP growth in the range of 2.5 to 2.8% was still expected in May”.

As for exports, the same analysis showed that "the exchange effect was positive for growth in non-commodity trade, which rose by 9.7% between the two semesters of the year and 7.9% year over year”.