In recent years, Asia has become the continent that has opened the most doors for Brazilian agribusiness. Since 2023, 228 of the 535 new markets released by Brazil are on the continent, including meat, fish and fruit, for example. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s visit to India and South Korea, starting next Tuesday (17), in this context, seeks to consolidate the Brazilian presence in the region and expand access to national agricultural products.
Among the main points in the bilateral meeting with India are the sanitary opening for the export of Brazilian pigeon peas and the reduction in tariffs applied to chicken, which currently reach around 100% for certain cuts.
Data from the Secretariat of International Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture show that, since 2023, beans occupy the third position among the products with the highest number of new accessions in Asia, with 11 market openings.
“The Asian market, in addition to being the main destination for Brazilian exports of agricultural products, has also shown the greatest dynamism. It is very important to highlight the intensity of growth in shipments to other markets, both from Southeast Asian economies (for example, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines), India (a market with great buyer potential, but still very closed with trade barriers), and South Korea (a market that pays values well above the world average)”, details FGV Agro researcher, Felippe Serigato.
In an interview with CNN Agro, Serigatti highlights that, although this movement has been going on for some time, “there has been no loss of momentum since 2023, despite the world having threatened a more protectionist stance.”
In the case of India, five markets have already been released for products from the citrus sector, two for açaí and two for fish between 2023 and 2026.
beef
After the visit to India, Lula heads to South Korea, where the priority will be to formally relaunch negotiations for the export of Brazilian beef. Negotiations had been initiated previously, but did not progress due to internal political issues in the country.
The South Korean market is one of the largest importers of beef in Asia and is currently supplied mainly by the United States and Australia. In recent years, South Korea has authorized the import of poultry genetic material, macaúba almonds, poultry and pork flour and oils from Brazil, among other products.
In the ranking of countries with the highest number of markets open to Brazilian agriculture since 2023, South Korea and Japan lead, with 18 markets each. Next come Russia, with 16, and Armenia, India and Kyrgyzstan, with 14 each.
Among the 535 markets open since 2023, more than one hundred are linked to livestock and fish farming, covering live animals, meat, genetic materials and co-products. The performance in Asia reinforces the Brazilian strategy of diversifying destinations and the importance of the continent for the expansion of national agricultural exports.
(Isadora Camargo, from CNN Brasil, contributed)
