In an interview conducted by Mayra Theis, Partner and Agribusiness Leader at PwC Brazil, Marcos Troyjo — economist, sociologist, and diplomat — examines how conflicts, sanctions, and trade disputes impact agribusiness, reshape global food/ feed/ fuel/ fiber/ fund chains and elevate trust as a cornerstone of international trade relationships.
Takeaways
- What does this geopolitical scenario mean for agribusiness companies?
- What does it mean for global food and agriculture supply chains?
- What opportunities does geopolitics create for collaboration with Brazil?
- How can PwC help you act?
What does this geopolitical scenario mean for agribusiness companies?
- Need to diversify markets: In an environment where conflicts, sanctions and regulatory shifts can rapidly alter trade flows, diversification evolves from a growth strategy into a core driver of margin protection and stability, particularly as trade relationships become more restrictive or unpredictable.
- Rising demand for investment in innovation: R&D, technology and management capabilities gain importance as markets grow more volatile, and value chains come under increasing pressure. The ability to ensure internal security and integrate new solutions becomes a key differentiator, enabling companies to respond with greater autonomy and efficiency to complex scenarios while preserving competitiveness.
- Ability to manage short- and long-term dynamics: Not all geopolitical developments affect agribusiness companies in the same way. Short-term shocks — such as sanctions, conflicts, or tariff changes — are part of micro‑geopolitics and may require rapid adjustments in logistics, sourcing, sales, and market exposure. In contrast, macro‑geopolitics involves deeper transformations that can reshape value chains, influence trade flows and reconfigure investments over decades. In this context, immediate decisions must not compromise broader strategic directions.
What does it mean for global food and agriculture supply chains?
- Urgency to prioritize trusted relationships: Concepts such as friendshoring and trust shoring are gaining traction, as decisions increasingly hinge on trust, stability and predictability. In critical value chains — especially food and energy — choosing trade partners is no longer purely an economic decision, but one that also considers risk exposure, alignment and the history of engagement.
- Drive toward maximum self-sufficiency in food and energy: In a context of heightened global tensions, the availability of food and energy is treated as a matter of national security. Reducing excessive dependence on external suppliers becomes essential to ensuring both food and energy security for populations.
- Geographically driven industrial positioning for crisis management: The global dispersion of production seen in recent decades is being reassessed. Rather than pursuing efficiency solely through diversification of manufacturing hubs, companies and countries are becoming more selective about where to locate production, processing, and distribution. This shift reshapes value chains, with decisions increasingly guided not only by operational efficiency, but also by political stability, access to inputs and the ability to sustain supply during times of disruption.
What opportunities does geopolitics create for collaboration with Brazil?
- Partner with Brazil as a strategic and trusted trade ally: In a context of geopolitical fragmentation and the weaponization of trade, where competitive advantages are increasingly used as instruments of pressure, Brazil stands out as a reliable and neutral partner. With balanced international relationships and distance from major geopolitical hotspots, the country combines scale and agility in agricultural production with low geopolitical risk and relative economic stability. As food and energy become matters of national security, Brazil’s ability to ensure predictable and resilient supply chains position it as a key player in the shift toward trust shoring, expanding its relevance in global markets precisely when confidence among other partners weakens.
- Leverage Brazil’s technological backbone and open innovation ecosystem: Beyond its scale and favorable conditions for tropical agriculture, Brazil offers a unique opportunity for collaboration through a mature and highly connected innovation environment. With over 2,000 agtechs and leading research institutions such as Esalq-USP and Embrapa, the country has developed expertise that can be transferred and adapted to other geographies. Its strong culture of open innovation— linking producers, corporations, startups, academia, and other stakeholders—enables collaborative solutions across the entire value chain, positioning Brazil as a strategic partner for knowledge exchange and technology-driven agricultural transformation.
- Integrate with Brazil’s interconnected value chains to drive cross-sector collaboration: As emerging economies pursue maximum efficiency, the boundaries between value chains are increasingly blurred, accelerating collaboration and the cross-pollination of markets. In Brazil, agribusiness exemplifies this integrated model: the same production base simultaneously provide the human food and livestock feed chains, supports biofuel generation and supplies fibers and forestry solutions, all deeply intertwined with the fund ecosystem, where demand for private and sustainable credit continues to expand. This structural interconnection creates opportunities for more efficient resource allocation, innovation across sectors, and strategic partnerships that capture value across multiple, mutually reinforcing markets.
- Invest in Brazil’s development platform and unlock scalable growth opportunities: As Brazil assumes a more central role in global food and energy security, its infrastructure, logistics, storage, and distribution gaps shift from being internal constraints to becoming strategic opportunities for collaboration. These bottlenecks increasingly attract capital, technology, and external expertise, as their improvement generates impact not only domestically but across global value chains. What was once perceived as inefficiency is now reframed as a scalable development agenda—offering attractive returns and positioning Brazil as a platform for long-term, high-impact investment.
How can PwC help you act?
- Leveraging the expertise of the CoE and PwC Agtech Innovation: With the Agribusiness Center of Excellence (CoE) and PwC Agtech Innovation hub based in Brazil, PwC supports clients in identifying and implementing solutions, structuring innovation strategies, managing field projects and delivering market intelligence.
- Connecting ecosystem stakeholders: PwC Agtech Innovation operates as a platform that brings together farmers, corporates, startups, universities, investors, institutional partners, and big techs around agribusiness challenges and adjacent sectors. With more than 800 connected entities, it fosters collaboration within the open innovation environment, orchestrating capabilities across areas such as applied artificial intelligence, data, automation, traceability, and digital transformation.
- Accelerating solution deployment: Over the past two years, the hub has participated in more than 100 innovation projects addressing specific needs in production, logistics, sustainability, management, and efficiency. Its mission is to orchestrate the ecosystem — integrating technical expertise, relationships and execution — to turn demands into tangible outcomes.
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