Comparing the results of April May and June of this year with the same period of 2019, the general Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the sum of all products and services produced in the country, plunged 11.4%. But in the midst of so many falls, there is a sector that resists and remains positive. This is the case for agricultural products. Agribusiness GDP grew 1.2% in the second quarter of this year, as a result of work in the field, which has not stopped.

People are buying less. Whoever went to the supermarket in the second quarter of 2019, for example, guaranteed a greater number of products in the cart. Now, spending on household consumption is 13.5% lower.

According to the IBGE, this is explained by the pandemic period, which brought social isolation, paralyzed activities and falling wages. Other sectors of the national economy also saw reductions in Gross Domestic Product.

The industry had a drop of 12.7% in GDP, the highest percentage ever recorded by the sector, since 1996. Construction and services, which includes trade, fell more than 11%.

According to Marcos de Rosa, vice president of the Federation of Agriculture and Livestock of the State of Mato Grosso (Famato), the permanence in the opening of ports and the work of truck drivers was essential to maintain the GDP in the sector.

“Our entities asked the Ministry of Agriculture not to close the ports and allow truck drivers to move around the country. This made the GDP result positive. We have sales in the futures market and they need to be fulfilled. If, by chance, the ports were closed, we would have negative GDP, loss of meat and grain production ”, he said.

It was through ports that the country served its main buyer. The growth of exports of Brazilian agribusiness products to China was 30% in the first half of this year.

In Mato Grosso, soy is the product that most appeals to Asians. From January to July, the state exported more than 20 million tons of the grain, more than half to the Chinese market.

Simconsult consultant, João Birkhan, points out that the agricultural sector expects growth this year.

“China must import more and more. They have almost no stock of corn. They were not maize importers and are already importing around 20 million tonnes this year. We will also become a major supplier of corn to China.

The agricultural sector is the only one expected to grow in 2020, as pointed out by the National Agriculture Confederation, which also predicts that the sector will end the year with a 3.5% increase in GDP.

“For many years, the agribusiness has insured the numbers of the Brazilian economy. And it is the producer that has broken barriers in recent decades, making the inhospitable territory as in the Midwest, infertile lands, in a world granary. A country that until recently was an importer of food started to supply all its domestic demand and become one of the largest exporters in the world ”, pointed out Fernando Cadore, vice president of Aprosoja.

Source: g1.globo.com