Brazils Natural Resources

In Brazil, natural resources have helped a lot in the enhancement of financial status of the
country. It has a primary aim to eradicate rural poverty. Government is taking care of those
natural resources and by preserving them it is trying to stabilize the economic condition of
Brazil. Brazils natural resources mainly include:

Iron Ore

Manganese

Bauxite

Nickel

Granite

Limestone

Clay

Sand

Tin

Gold

Platinum

Uranium

Gems

Petroleum

Phosphates

Timber

Hydroelectric Power

Brazil Income from natural resources, percent of GDP

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

The World Bank provides data for Brazil from 1987 to 2013. The average value for Brazil during
that period was 4.39 percent with a minimum of 1.98 percent in 1998 and a maximum of 8
percent in 2008.

India Income from natural resources, percent of GDP

10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

The World Bank provides data for India from 1970 to 2013. The average value for India during
that period was 4.79 percent with a minimum of 2.05 percent in 1972 and a maximum of 9.18
percent in 2008

The natural resources include oil, natural gas, coal, minerals, and the forest. Natural resources
income rankings around the world. Create and download charts for Brazil Natural resources
income and other indicators with the country comparator.

Some of the major agricultural products are as follows

Sugarcane

Corn

Potatoes

Cocoa

Peanuts

Cassava

Rice

Beef
Cattle
Pork
Soybeans
Oranges
Wheat
Dry Beans
Coffee
Cotton
Tomatoes

Iron Ore:
Iron ore is the world's second-biggest commodity cargo after crude oil, and Vale SA, based in
Rio de Janeiro, is the biggest producer, accounting for about 31 percent of global iron ore
exports.
China's need for raw materials for steel has grown eightfold since 2000. The scale of Brazil's iron
output to China is so prodigious that Vale SA is spending more than $8 billion on a fleet of epic
ships. The Valemax ships measure almost 1,200 feet long and can carry 400,000 metric tons of
iron ore. China and Brazil are negotiating port-entry permits for the mammoth ships.

Sugar Cane
Brazil produced almost 720 million metric tons of sugar cane in 2010, more than 2 1/2 times that
of the second-largest producer, India. About 55 percent of it went into ethanol production,
according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Brazil
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0

Brazil Sugar cane production, million international USD: For that indicator, The United
Nations (FAO) provides data for Brazil from 1961 to 2012. The average value for Brazil during
that period was 8597.35 million international USD with a minumum of 1949.78 million
international USD in 1961 and a maximum of 23678.01 million international USD in 2012.

India
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0

India Sugar cane production, million international USD: For that indicator, The United
Nations (FAO) provides data for India from 1961 to 2012. The average value for India during
that period was 6720.78 million international USD with a minumum of 3018.15 million
international USD in 1963 and a maximum of 11423.01 million international USD in 2012.
Oranges
Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of oranges, providing fruit for about one in six
glasses of juice drunk in the U.S. The country produced 19 million metric tons in 2010,
compared with less than 7.5 million in the U.S.
Growers said last month that they will stop using a U.S.-banned fungicide called carbendazim,
after U.S.-bound shipments were detained. The fungicide, used to fight black-spot fungus in
oranges, has been linked to liver tumors in animals. The U.S. started screening orange juice
imports last month after Coca Cola Co., maker of Minute Maid, reported traces of carbendazim
in shipments from Brazil.
Sucocitrico Cutrale makes about 30 percent of global orange juice supplies.
Deepwater Oil
Deepwater oil discoveries have helped Brazil increase its total oil production nearly 10 times
since 1980, to 2.6 million barrels a day in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration.
In 2007, Petrobras, the state oil company, and partners made the biggest oil find in the Western
Hemisphere in 30 years. The rig is designed to extract more than 180,000 barrels of oil and 6
million of cubic meters of gas per day. Petrobras has invested $830 million and employed more
than 5,000 people in the exploitation of the now-declining Marlim oil field alone.
Cattle
Brazil is the world's second-largest beef producer, with a commercial herd that exceeds 200
million animals. JBS SA, the world's largest beef producer, operates 62 plants in six countries,
most of them in the state of Mato Grosso. JBS currently has the capacity to slaughter 87,290
cattle daily.
Brazilian beef is associated with higher greenhouse gas emissions than that produced by other
countries because of the amount of carbon-trapping forests removed to raise cattle, according to
a January 2011 study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. As demand for meat
increases across the globe, more food grain is needed, pushing farmers to level forests so as to
increase soybean and corn production.
Soybeans

Soybeans have become so ubiquitous that Ford Motor Co. even uses soy-based foam in car seats
and head restraints. Most of the crop becomes livestock feed (66 percent), cooking oil, biofuel
and food. Demand for soybeans increased at almost four times the pace of population growth in
the past decade.
Drought and higher-than-normal temperatures in Brazil in February may cause the biggest-ever
annual drop in production.
Aluminum
Rising consumption of aluminum, used in products from beer cans to airplane wings, has
climbed with the rise of middle classes in China, Brazil and the Middle East. Alcoa Inc., the
biggest U.S. producer, said it expects demand for the metal to double by 2020. World production
increased by 8 percent last year.
Brazil has the third-largest reserves of bauxite, the clay-like rock used to make aluminum, after
Guinea and Australia. The South American country produced about 31 million tons of bauxite
last year and has reserves of 3.6 billion tons, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Water and Hydroelectric Power
Water is one of Brazil's greatest resources. It irrigates the crops, feeds the livestock, nourishes the
rainforests and powers the cities. The country is rich with it, holding 12 percent of the earth's
surface water and more than half of South America's fresh water.
The Itaipu dam is the world's second-largest hydroelectric power producer. It divides the Parana
River along the border of Brazil, right, and Paraguay, left. The dam provides about 20 percent of
Brazil's electricity and was the largest producer of electricity in the world before China built its
Three Gorges dam.Rainforests
The Amazon River carries more water than any other river on the planet, and about 60 percent of
the Amazon River basin's rainforests fall within Brazil's borders. The Amazon rainforests are
what scientists call a "sink" for atmospheric carbon dioxide, by which dense vegetation soaks up
atmospheric carbon and traps it in tissue.
Deforestation therefore reduces the Earth's capacity for absorbing CO2 pollution from fossil
fuels. It's responsible for an estimated 15 percent of man-made carbon emissions. U.N. climate
change negotiators failed in December to reach agreement on how to manage deforestation.
Brazil has vast natural resources that carry immense potential for the countrys economic and
environmental goals. Yet efficient land use, which can help the nation achieve both goals
concurrently, still stands as a great challenge.
The nation has room for enhanced protection of natural resources and growth of agricultural
production. From a protection standpoint, the country would benefit from significantly driving

up the cost of clearing native vegetation, as well as through the advancement of market-based
incentives that promote sustainable practices. From a production standpoint, there is room to
increase Brazilian agricultural production via productivity gains, at no apparent cost to
environmental conservation.
Today there is substantial variation in agricultural productivity both across and within Brazils
five regions. Much of this variation can be attributed to non-geographical factors such as access
to finance, technology, rental markets, cooperatives, and infrastructure. The study looks at each
of these factors for Brazils major agricultural sectors in turn, indicating ways in which to
increase productivity.
For example:

About a fifth of the regional variation in Brazilian agricultural productivity is associated

with credit availability, suggesting that greater access to credit could improve
productivity. Yet, access to rural credit in Brazil is limited. According to data from the
last available Agricultural Census, about 75% of large-scale crop farmers and less than
20% of small-scale agricultural producers accessed credit.

In infrastructure, Brazils crop storage capacity can accommodate 80% of total harvest,
well below the recommended 120%. Similarly, poor roads make transportation costly
carrying a ton of soybean from one of Brazils leading soybean production municipalities
to its point of export is almost three times more expensive as it is to carry the same
amount of soybean over a similar distance to a port in the United States.

Over the past decades, the country has made significant progress in the protection of its natural
resources, especially in the Amazon. In 2006, protected areas occupied more than ten times the
area they covered in 1985. Today, Brazil has a relatively consolidated regulatory framework and
well-established instruments for the protection of natural resources in public lands. However, the
study points out that challenges remain in the protection of native vegetation among smallerscale deforesters, on private property, and with Brazils ecosystems beyond the Amazon, while
sustainable forestry is underdeveloped.
Moving forward, Climate Policy Initiative recommends two immediate steps: First, introduce the
systematic monitoring of selected areas with key land uses, for identification and assessment of
efficiency gains. Second, integrate action across government agencies and private firms to
structure and develop a Production and Protection strategy.