RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness Brazil

In the fifth episode of our Growing Brazil podcast series, we turn the spotlight onto Brazil's cellulose pulp and paper sector. This sector enjoys some natural competitive advantages thanks to the world-beating rate of growth of raw material—mostly eucalyptus trees—produced on Brazil's plantations and private farms. Over the last decade, the sector's output and exports have been growing significantly, with China becoming an ever-more important market. However, looking ahead, there are challenges: digitization has impacted the paper market in some regions, pulp and paper prices can be volatile, and investments in new capacity represent a major financial commitment for producers. Senior economist Andrés Padilla, a pulp and paper specialist from Rabobank Brazil's Food and Agribusiness research team, talks us through the current situation and future outlook for the sector.

In this podcast, Rabobank Brazil's research specialist for the coffee sector, Guilherme Morya, highlights key trends set to influence Brazilian coffee production now and in the future.

Brazil's sugarcane industry pioneered large scale biofuel production in the 1970s, and later, in the 1990s, emerged as a major player on the world sugar market. More recently, this industry has seen its fair share of euphoria and despair over the last decade, and output has been static for the last five years. Andy Duff, head of the Food and Agri Research team at Rabobank Brazil and a specialist in the sugar and ethanol sectors, discusses the industry's current status and future prospects.

In terms of area planted and export revenue generated, there is no crop that is more representative of Brazilian agribusiness than soybeans. In this podcast, Rabobank Brazil's grains specialist Victor Ikeda discusses the long term outlook for Brazilian soybean production and the main factors driving demand in the domestic and export markets over the coming decade.

In this episode, Adolfo Fontes, animal protein specialist at Rabobank São Paulo, describes how Brazil's beef sector is adapting its production systems in order to maintain future growth in beef output while at the same time reducing pasture area and releasing land for conversion from pasture to grain production. Growing Brazil — Brazil is one of the world's leading exporters of food & agri commodities. The continued long term growth of Brazilian agricultural production and exports is seen as pivotal in ensuring that world food supplies are sufficient to meet the needs of a growing population. In this series of podcasts we take a closer look at the opportunities and challenges that such expectations create for farmers, processors, traders and others involved in Brazilian agribusiness.