Mozambique, Brazil trade rises threefold

by Fred Katerere

Trade between Brazil and Mozambique has risen more than threefold to $102.5 million so far this year compared with a year earlier, Brazilian Trade Minister Miguel Jorge said.

Between January and October this year, Brazilian exports to Mozambique totaled $100.4 million, up from $28.4 million a year earlier, Jorge said at a briefing in the southeast African country’s capital, Maputo. Mozambican exports to Brazil increased from $2,000 in the first 10 months of 2007 to $2.1 million during the same period this year, said Jorge.

Brazil is the world’s biggest producer of sugar, coffee and orange juice, the second-largest producer of soybeans and the third-biggest producer of corn. It’s also home to Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, which has won a concession to mine coal in Mozambique’s Tete province. Jorge is leading a 100-member delegation of businesspeople seeking investment and cooperation ventures in Angola, Mozambique and South Africa.

Bloomberg