Brazil

Rio de Janeiro

The volume of trade between Germany and Brazil has almost doubled in the last 10 years to more than 15 billion Euro in 2008. Germany is one of Brazil’s main suppliers and ranks fourth behind the USA, China, Argentina.

Currently investment amounts to approx. 8 billion Euro. German companies generate approx. 8% of Brazil’s industrial gross domestic product.

In the current global financial and economic crisis Brazil is proving relatively stable as compared to earlier crises. The conservative economic and monetary policies of the past ten years are proving extremely successful (independent central bank, stable currency with flexible exchange rates, stable banking sector, reduction of debts, a growing middle class, diversification of exports). Brazil’s importance as a “new” market for German companies will probably continue to increase (after the crisis). In the coming years Brazil is planning to invest more than 200 billion Euro in the infrastructure and energy sectors, funded both by the state and the private sector. This should provide interesting opportunities for German industry – as should the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.

Agribusiness Inititiative

Objectives and Structure of the Agribusiness Initiative

Agribusiness is one of the Brazil’s major sectors and is to be developed even further. In particular this sector’s value added is to be increased. At the beginning of 2003 Brazilian Minister of Economics Furlan therefore proposed setting up a bilateral agribusiness initiative to intensify cooperation with German business in this sector. The Initiative was officially founded on 27 October 2009 during the German-Brazilian Economic Meeting in Goiânia at a ceremony attended by Brazilian Minister of Economics Furlan and Parliamentary State Secretary Staffelt, BMWA, as well as former Federal Minister Künast, BMELV, and her Brazilian counterpart Rodrigues. During the German-Brazilian Economic Meeting in Cologne in 2009, the Joint Commission decided to extend the working group’s mandate by a further three years.

The Initiative’s objective is to bring German and Brazilian know-how and joint interests together. New trade and investment potential is to be developed through asymmetrical value added partnerships between German and Brazilian companies along the entire process chain in the agri- and food sectors. Areas and projects for close economic cooperation are to be identified. The BDI, the BMELV and the BMWi have taken over the coordination on the German side. Approx. 100 German companies along the food sector’s value chain are currently taking part in the Initiative.

EU-Brazil Summit

The last EU-Brazil Summit was held in Brasília on 14 July 2010. Further information and documents can be found below 

http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/brazil/summit/index_en.htm