Brazilian Honeys Exports

Various elements contributed to the decline of brazilian honey exports in 2005, the crucial ones were : a) the exchange rate behavior (the dollar lost approximately 12% of its value against the Real), b) the rising availability of the product in some direct competitor countries such as Uruguay, India and Vietnam and c) falling argentine trade pricing which impacted mainly the ELA and White honeys quotations all over the year.

These elements, combined with relatively poor crops both in the Northeast and Southern regions lead the country to suffer a 31% decrease on the exported volumes. Brazil may have produced around 33 thousand MT of honey in 2005, only 45% was sold to foreign buyers.

The declining international prices combined to the relatively stability in the domestic scenario lead some important processing plants to switch some of the production to the local market.

Except for the reasonable profitability for organic honeys (whose market possibilities have been steadily growing), the rule in 2005 was an extremely depressed margin, not seldom exporters absorbed losses to sustain contracts. Average price of exported honeys in 2005 was USD 1310/MT FOB (35% lower than 2004).