Import of agrochemicals falls in volume, grows in US$ in 1st semester in Brazil

By Leonardo Gottems, Reporter for AgroPages

According to the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (Abiquim), Brazil’s importation of agricultural defensive products totaled 270,101 tonnes in the first half of 2020, a 6.3% drop in volume compared to the first six months of last year. 

Brazil purchased 130,558 tonnes of active ingredients, down 7% and 139,542 tonnes of formulated products, down 5.6%, between January and June this year.

In terms of values, Brazil bought US$2.118 billion in the first half of the year, an increase of 2.1% over $2.075 billion in the same period of 2019. The active ingredients added up to $735.264 million, a decrease of 4%, while formulated products grew 5.6% worth $1,383 million of Brazilian purchases from abroad.

Ciro Marino (Executive President of Abiquim) stressed that it is imperative for measures that increase competitiveness to be immediately adopted, with a focus on the short-term, as well as on structural development in the medium and long-terms. According to him, it is important for Brazil to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic and resume economic activity.

“Trade policies will play a central role at a time when several economies, especially in Asia, are already showing robust indicators of acceleration, due to the availability of exportable surpluses. The success of the national economic recovery process will depend particularly on a technical, pragmatic and cohesive approach to trade defense, a discipline with a strategic role in the system of guarantees of legal security against unfair trade practices, to which the country will be even more exposed during the commercial 'new global order,' which is already beginning to take shape in terms of what the post-pandemic world will look like,” Marino said.