Shuttle: Still high, agricultural prices lose strength

After a strong acceleration in recent years, part of agricultural products lost strength in the field last year and had a price reduction.

One of them was rice. Traded at BRL 77.56 in Rio Grande do Sul in 2021, the bag dropped to BRL 62.80 on average for 2022, according to Cepea (Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics).

The fall would be even greater were it not for the accelerated pace of exports. Favorable foreign prices and world demand made the Brazilian cereal competitive.

Corn, after replenishing Brazilian stocks with the 2022 off-season, also fell. Last year, the average bag price was BRL 88.2, down from BRL 91.8 in 2021.

That year, frost and drought had caused a shortfall of close to 20 million tons in the winter crop, compared to initial production forecasts.

Cepea, which carries out a daily survey of agricultural prices, also recorded a drop in average pork prices. Driven by Chinese demand, producers increased the supply of protein on the market.

The recomposition of the herd in China and the consequent lower imports by the Chinese increased Brazilian stocks, causing a drop in prices.

Despite these retractions, the average values ​​of negotiations for the prices of agricultural products in 2022 are still much higher than those from 2018 to 2020.

Current values ​​for rice are still 58% higher than those of 2018; corn, by 129%; and pork, by 80%.

Other products also lost their pace at the end of 2022, but still maintain higher values ​​than in previous years.

In Cepea’s calculations, a bag of soy rose to R$ 189 in Paraná last year, a record average value and 124% above that of 2018.

Fatty cattle and chicken, unlike pork, kept rising prices in 2022, but at a slower pace.

Coffee and wheat, after the skyrocketing of values, lost the high pace at the end of the year. Current prices, however, are still 240% and 122% higher, respectively, than those of 2018.

Retirement Researcher Evaristo de Miranda, with four decades of work at Embrapa, retired. He was part of Embrapa Semiarid, Embrapa Environment and Embrapa Territorial.

Works He is the author of 1,300 scientific articles and 50 books. One of the books, “The Geography of the Skin”, makes a very entertaining account of the period of research in the semi-arid region of Niger, in North Africa.

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