The Brazilian government believes that the entry of more countries into the BRICS bloc represents the creation of great opportunities for agricultural exports, as stated in an interview with Sputnik by the Deputy Secretary of Trade and International Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Julio Ramos.
Are there gigantic opportunities; for example, Egypt, which is a country that entered the BRICS group, this year we opened the fish export market, last year that of cotton, when would you have imagined that Egypt would import cotton from someone? When you think of cotton you think of Egyptian cotton; today Brazil exports cotton to Egypt,” he said.
The head of the ministry recalled that both China and South Africa have opened their markets to the entry of fish recently and that Brazil will install in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, an agricultural attaché to increase opportunities on the African continent.
Ramos pointed out that the 18 months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Brazil managed to conquer 150 new markets around the world, a historical record, and that the trend is of growth.
In this regard, he argued that BRICS countries can dialogue more and create conditions for negotiating with each other, expanding the Brazilian trade balance and at the same time creating employment opportunities in other countries.
“When Brazil gets to a market we don’t want to take the market space of nobody; we often want to give conditions for local producers, for local industries to process our commodities many times, creating jobs in Brazil and in the country it is buying,” he said.
The BRICS bloc was originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but last year Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia joined, and many other countries expressed interest in being part.
This article has been translated after first appearing in El Pais