B
razilian vegetable gardens are
still yielding limited results.
Although some favorable re-
sults may come from the sec-
tor, in general, vegetables are
still affected by several situations, like
bad weather conditions, adversely affect-
ing most agricultural crops in 2016, along
with questions related to production costs,
which, on the heels of the exchange rate,
represented a heavy burden over the year,
whilst demand was weak, mainly due to
the economic crisis. One of the possible
alternatives could lie in industrialization,
where initiatives related to potatoes and
tomatoes are likely to inspire more prom-
ising forecasts for the new growing season.
The latest official data on the segment
date back to 2015. Embrapa Vegetables,
through numbers presented by research-
ers Geovani Amaro and Nirlene Vilela, in the
second half of 2016, registers a decrease in
several indicators, except in value, which
soared, despite shrinking supply. The same
holds true in the comparison detected by
the institution between 2011 and 2015:
considering all major crops, only sweet po-
tatoes and melons showed positive pro-
duction rates, respectively 5.8% and 4.5%.
Productivity remained stable.
Results relative to 2016, sources from
the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture
and Livestock (CNA) observe that Brazil’s
vegetable production suffered from bad
weather conditions, just like what hap-
pened in previous seasons. They refer to
excessive precipitation levels, coldweather
and frost conditions in the southern region,
whilst the Northeast was hit by drought
conditions, in line with information re-
leased by the Brazilian Vegetable Institute
(Ibrahort) on losses reaching almost 30%,
mainly due to low temperatures and frost
conditions that affected vegetables grown
in the open, with the drought in the North-
east causing losses of about 20%.
These weather conditions had a di-
rect influence upon prices, say CNA
Climateadverselyaffectstheproductionofvegetables,whichalsosuffered
higherproductioncostsin2016,duetothehighvalueofthedollar
Moving
slowly
VEGETABLES
Inor Ag. Assmann
68
