Brazilian Agriculture
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Modern agriculture is global, and emerging countries like Brazil are becoming more sophisticated and more competitive in the global market every year. So it’s important for American farmers to understand not only what they’re neighbors are doing, but what’s going on in the industry around the world. Alex Wimbush, chief digital officer for Lavoro Agro, provides some context on the scale of Brazilian agriculture.
Wimbush… “They exported about $140 billion in ag products last year. They're the third largest ag exporter in the world. There is an insane amount of diversity in terms of soil and climate across the country. I mean, you've got everything from sort of more Midwest-like parts in the south of Brazil all the way up to the tropics.”
Wimbush says farmers in Brazil are younger with smaller operations on average, but tend to be more profitable.
Wimbush… “They tend to be more profitable also than their US counterparts. So operating margins for Brazilian farmer the last couple years have been like 35 to 40%. If you look at productivity, however, a US corn farmer is gonna be two times more productive than that Brazilian farmer. And the difference really is gonna come down to technology, and that technology comes in the form of inputs. And inputs is really where Lavoro plays.”
Lavoro Agro is the largest ag retailer in Latin America based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
