From tropical production to global markets
By Agribusiness Center of Excellence at PwC Brazil
Brazil stands out on the global stage for its wide range of crops spread across a vast and heterogeneous territory. This productive base — largely centered on agricultural raw materials — has driven the development of regional processing, logistics and trade complexes capable of meeting both domestic supply needs and international demand.
One of the key elements underpinning this structure is the combination of tropical production, climate variability, and abundant natural resources. Together, these factors allow many crops to be produced in more than one harvest per year, reducing seasonality and enabling a more consistent supply — one that can serve domestic markets while also supporting exports.
The result is a system that operates with diversity and predictability, attributes that are increasingly valuable in a global environment shaped by climate volatility, geopolitical tensions, and mounting pressure on supply chains. In this context, Brazil’s relevance is less tied to a single product or region and more to its ability to connect different production bases into a broad supply of food and energy.
Territorial dimension and land use
Brazil’s ability to operate this system begins with its territorial scale. Covering 8.5 million square kilometers, the country is the fifth largest in the world by land area, comparable to the combined size of major European nations such as France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. This territorial dimension helps explain not only Brazil’s production volume, but also its capacity to sustain multiple agro-industrial value chains at the same time.
Brazil encompasses a wide range of biomes, climate regimes and soil conditions, supporting different production models, from rainfed and irrigated systems to extensive, intensive and integrated crop-livestock operations.
Productive areas also coexist with extensive conservation areas. Data consolidated by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) indicate that approximately 65% of Brazil’s territory remains covered by native vegetation, including state-protected areas and legally preserved land within rural properties.
Agriculture, livestock, and pasture occupy approximately 30% of the country’s land area, while urban zones and infrastructure represent only a small fraction of the territory, less than 5%. This distribution shows that, at the national scale, agricultural production (which occupies approximately a third of the territory) and environmental conservation (65%) coexist as parts of the same territorial arrangement.
In addition, the country has an energy matrix widely recognized for being renewable, holds 20% of global biodiversity, according to the Convention on Biological Diversity treaty, and contains 12% of the world’s freshwater reserves, according to the National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency. Brazil is also home to 60% of the Amazon rainforest, the largest tropical forest in the world, according to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.
Productive value chains and territorial organization
The production of grains and oilseeds, especially soybeans and corn, is the most representative in Brazilian agribusiness. In the 2024/25 crop season, these two crops totaled more than 350 million tonnes. Brazilian agribusiness is powered by grains — but is more than that and goes far beyond the field. What emerges is not a single industry, but a dynamic, interconnected engine of growth — one that is deeply intensive in demand capital and opportunity.
This engine can be understood through five fundamental forces: food, feed, fuel, fiber/forest and fund. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Brazil contributes to global food security, producing food for an estimated 10% of the population across the five continents. In energy, Brazil also plays a relevant role: in 2025, the country accounted for 27% of global fuel ethanol production, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.
The Center-West region accounts for nearly half of this volume. With highly mechanized farming operations, the region supplies global food and energy markets. Beyond soy and corn, the Cerrado biome, located in the region, is also a major hub for cotton production, linking Brazil to the global textile industry, and also plays a central role in beef cattle production.
In the Southern region of the country, productive organization relies heavily on cooperatives and agro-industrial arrangements that integrate crop and livestock farming. Soybeans and corn provide the foundation for poultry, pork and dairy production systems, forming one of Brazil’s main hubs for processed animal-based foods, characterized by high logistical efficiency and a strong presence in export markets.
The Southeast connects agriculture, industry and energy. The sugarcane bioenergy sector is the most emblematic example. According to Brazil’s National Supply Company (Conab), in the 2024/25 harvest, the production of approximately 676 million tonnes of sugarcane reinforced Brazil’s leadership in sugar and ethanol and highlighted the sector’s flexibility between food and fuel markets. The region also concentrates higher value-added segments, such as coffee and citrus, as well as service, research and innovation hubs that play a structuring role in Brazilian agribusiness.
This flexibility positions the sugar-energy chain as one of the main connections between Brazilian agribusiness and the global bioenergy agenda. Beyond the domestic market, Brazilian ethanol is part of export flows and has been expanded through new production routes, such as corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol. Biofuels are not just an alternative — they are a decisive pathway away from more polluting fossil sources, already powering blended fuels in combustion engines. As countries in Europe and Asia, like Japan, accelerate their decarbonization commitments, this strategy is no longer optional, it is essential. And Brazil, together with emerging producers as Africa, is not only part of this transition, but helping lead it on a global scale.
The Northeast broadens the diversity and regularity of agricultural supply. The combination of different climate regimes and the expansion of irrigated agriculture underpins the production of tropical fruits for export, alongside agro-industrial segments such as sugarcane, cotton, soybeans, corn and cocoa, reducing territorial concentration and increasing the resilience of the system.
The North, in turn, expands the scope of Brazilian agribusiness by incorporating economic activities associated with the bioeconomy and the use of natural resources. Products such as cassava, cocoa, açaí and fisheries connect agricultural production to issues of biodiversity, sustainable land use, and the development of new markets.
This regional distribution allows Brazil to operate a broad and complementary portfolio of agricultural products, fibers, energy and processed foods, supporting its position as a strategic supplier in global agribusiness. Brazil’s productive organization also operates within the framework of the country’s Forest Code, which requires the preservation of native vegetation on rural properties and contributes to environmental services that are not always financially compensated. This reinforces the connection between land use, production and conservation in Brazilian agribusiness.
Research, technology and innovation under tropical conditions
The diversity of biomes, soils, crops and production systems required technical knowledge adapted to tropical conditions. Until the 1970s, the Cerrado, Brazil’s tropical savanna biome, was seen as a region with low agricultural aptitude, marked by acidic and nutrient-poor soils, as well as a challenging climate regime.
The evolution of agriculture in this biome began to show how science could adapt soils, plants and production systems to these conditions. Advances in soil correction, genetic improvement, water management, biological nitrogen fixation and agricultural zoning helped build a technical foundation for tropical production. This process was supported by institutions such as Embrapa and Esalq, a Brazilian teaching and research institution focused on agricultural sciences.
This trajectory is also reflected in efficiency gains. According to Embrapa, over the past 34 years, national agricultural production has increased by 471%, in a movement associated with science, innovation and sustainable management of natural resources.
This technical repertoire has since been combined with a broader innovation ecosystem. According to Radar Agtech Brasil 2025, the country counted 2,075 agtechs and 390 innovation environments. These figures point to a growing infrastructure supporting technological development in agribusiness, formed by startups, hubs, research centers, universities, investors and companies.
As a result, innovation in Brazilian agribusiness is not organized only around the adoption of technologies, but also around the ability to test them under varied production conditions and bring them closer to challenges also found in other tropical and emerging markets.
*Established in 2007, PwC Brazil’s Agribusiness Center of Excellence (COE) is fully dedicated to serving the agribusiness sector, bringing together multidisciplinary experts with deep knowledge of the industry’s value chain. Based in Ribeirão Preto and Piracicaba, the COE supports agribusiness companies with tailored solutions in external audit, tax and corporate advisory, as well as strategy, business and innovation. Its work integrates market intelligence, trend analysis and specialized technical support, delivering agile and precise solutions aligned with each client’s real-world challenges.
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