We wrote early June on the Brazilian employment market which remained very resiliant to the crisis.
Today the June figures were release: the unemployment fell further down from 8,9% in May to 8,1% in June.  This is  the same as in May 2008, which was a record year for Brazil in terms of employment occupation.
If you put this figures in a historical perspective (see below chart) you see the strength of this performance.
The USA unemployment rate went up to 9,5% and the South African unemployment rate went up above 23%.

Tags: employment, unemployment

Dilma Roussef just announced that the bidding for the Rapid Train connection between Rio and Sao Paulo will start and that the winning consortium will be choosen in June 2010. The whole project would cost R$ 34,6 billion, 57% above the original foreseen budget.

The direct ride from Sao Paulo center (Campo do Marte)  to Rio center (Barao de Maua) will take 94 minutes and cost around R$ 200 in peak times and R$ 150 in off-peak times.

You can also take the regional traject which starts in Campinas, over Aeroporto Viracopos, via Sao Paulo center (Campo de Marte), the international airport of Guarulhos in Sao Paulo, Sao Jose dos Campos (hometown of Embraer), Volta Redonda, international airport Galeao of Rio and Rio center (Barao de Maua).
This means you would be able to get in less than 80 minutes and 3 stops from Galaeo internationalk airport in Rio to Sao Paulo international airport in Sao Paulo; which will open interesting perspectives.
The project will be finalised before the worldcup 2014 in Brazil and will surely have a huge impact on the Rio and Sao Paulo innerstate growth and dynamics.

We wrote a while ago on the massive amount of Internet users in Brazil; New Scientist just published an updated report, Brazil now 67.500.000n Internet users, that is more than Germany, the UK or India.
The most surprising number is however the growth pace of Internet users in Brazil.
In Germany there were 47.200.000 internet users in 2004, today Germany has 52.500.000 Internet users; that is a modest growth of 11,2% in 5 years.

Brazil counted 19.300.000 Internet users in 2004, today Germany 67.500.000 Internet users; that is a growth of 249,7% and this is an accelarating growth; only in the last 2,5 years the amount of Brazilian Internet users grew 160,6%. And saturation is far from being reached, even today only 26% of Brazil’s population is connected and with the growing middle class the amount of Internet users will continue to grow exponentially. In less then 18 months from here Brazil will have more than 50% of the amount of Internet users that the United States has.

(Internet) entrepeneur in Belgium? You might want to consider joining the Flanders export & trade mission to Brazil in November.

Tags: internet users brazil

Brazil has exported 31,4 billion US$ agriculture products in the first half of 2009, the Ministry of Agriculture just announced.
Last June only, Brazil exported 7,4 billion US$ of agriculture products.  That is 12% higher than the same period 2008, which was equally a record year.  June 2009 was is the second-largest historic export year, only July 2008 topped it with exports of 7,9 billion US$.

Interesting also: Asia took 27,1% of this H1 2009 export, overtaking the European Union as the first export destination of Brazilian agriculture export.  China alone took 16,9% of this, followed by the Netherlands and only then the United States (7%).  Russia and Germany follow with a vast multitude of other countries: the export of Brazil is extremely diversified these days.

We are (strong) believers in the prospects of agriculture.  Early July we bought in Powershares DB Agriculture Fund, Monsanto and Potash.  But you could also plainly just buy coffee, wheat, corn,…

Specifically wheat is an interesting case.  Especially for Brazil.  Wheat is produced allover the world.  It provides almost 20% of the calories consumed in the world; which means that demand is not at all elastic or discretionary.  This year would be again a big crop year, the 656 million ton would only be 26 million ton less than last year.  However, there is a time bomb ticking for wheat production called Ug99.
The fungus could wipe out more than 80% of the world’s wheat crops and is spreading from Africa.

Ug99 is an enormous threat as Rob Graf quotes in the Citizen article:

Let’s be clear on this: Ug99 doesn’t just represent an inconvenient disease that might reduce yields somewhat. It is a fungus that totally destroys wheat wherever it appears, as surely as a wildfire or plague of locusts. And not only that, it seems that many varieties of barley and oats are also susceptible to being destroyed by Ug99. And as I reported in 2006, plant scientists warn that at least two other similar plant diseases called stripe rust and leaf rust “also loom large” as threats to the world’s grain supply.

Brazilis nearly not importing any Agriculture products itself; it only imported 5,1 billion US$ in the first half of this year.  A decrease of 9,6% compared to 2008, mainly due to the decrease of wheat prices.  Wheat is onbe of the few agriculture products for which Brazil is dependent on import (from Argentina). Brazilian tropical climate is not very suitable for growing wheat. Only in Brazil’s coldest states, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul, wheat is produced.
However, Brazil has a plan to also get rid of the 6,6 million ton of wheat import from Argentina.  The plan is to do irrigated wheat production in the central region of Brazil (with abundant water resources).  To make the plan sustainable, the minimal prices for wheat would have to go up; which they surely will in our opinion.

This would mean that Brazil would become truly self-sufficient (0% import) for minerals, energy (electricity, petrol and gas) and agriculture; both in the short and long term.

On July 7th, the Financial Times published a 4-page special report on Brazil, you can read most of the articles online.

A few days later president Lula and Obama met at the G8, where Lula handed Obama a football shirt signed by the Brazilian squad; “#chupa” revisited.

President Zuma from South Africa also received one, at leats he could laugh.

Tags: #chupa, financial times brazil