The crisis caused by the Ukrainian War brought India closer to Brazilian trade. The commercial relationship between Brazilians and Indians has been small in the agribusiness sector, despite the size of the two economies.
This year, however, Indians have already spent US$ 1.1 billion in Brazil, 239% more than from January to May 2021.
One of the blows suffered by Indians with this new world scenario, caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine, was in the vegetable oil sector.
Dependent on the foreign market, the Indians import 3.7 million tons of soy oil and 1.8 million tons of sunflower oil.
Infrastructure problems in Ukraine, the biggest exporter of sunflower oil, made India increase purchases in Brazil.
In the first five months, soybean oil imports totaled 640 thousand tons, well above the 155 thousand in the same period last year. Indians also started to buy more black-eyed peas, peanuts, corn and rice.
Although still an incipient market, industrialized foods such as orange juice, cream, beer, spices and even mineral water are also included in this list.
On the other hand, Brazilian food imports into the Indian market are still very small, amounting to just US$ 32 million in the first five months. During the entire year of 2021, it was US$ 87 million.
Iran, a traditional food importer from Brazil, but which had reduced its presence here in recent years, raised purchases to US$ 1.1 billion this year, 79% more than in 2021.
The difficult international scenario in the supply of commodities also pushed Iran towards Brazilian products. Soybeans and corn were the highlights on the purchase list, but the biggest jump occurred in soybean oil purchases.
In view of the international difficulties in the world supply of vegetable oils, the Iranians bought 39 thousand tons of the product in Brazil, 524% more than from January to May of last year. They import 350 thousand tons of this product per year.
Although India and Iran are among Brazil’s ten main partners in the agricultural and food commodities segment, the leaders in this list are China and the United States.
The Chinese spent US$ 21 billion in the country in the last five months, with growth of 20%. Soy and meats are at the top of purchases.
The North Americans, on the other hand, raised imports to US$ 2 billion in the period, with highlights for coffee and meats.
Rice Brazilian rice exports reached 558 thousand tons in the first five months of this year. In the same period, imports totaled 491 thousand.
positive balance The data are from Abiarroz (Brazilian Association of the Rice Industry), which highlights the surplus of 67 thousand tons between exports and imports.​
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