Brazilian agriculture minister completes Asian trip to open up markets

Brazil regards Asia as a continent with high growth potential and a large consumer market, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said Tuesday after his Asian trip.

Maggi, accompanied by Brazilian businessmen and officials, visited China, India, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, where he discussed the increase of Brazilian exports of meat, milk byproducts and grains to Asian nations.

During the trip, the Brazilian delegation negotiated with Vietnam about the resumption of Brazilian meat sales. Several markets have suspended imports of Brazilian meat due to the fear of mad cow disease but are being progressively re-opened.

Representatives from Vietnam and Malaysia will soon travel to Brazil to inspect meatpacking facilities and slaughterhouses and to finalize future exports of Brazilian meat and poultry to those countries.

The Brazilian delegation also managed to get a deal to build an agricultural chemicals factory in India, with investments worth 1 billion reais (about 309 million U.S. dollars).

"The numbers are hard to measure, but we can say we managed to get 1.5-2 billion U.S. dollars in business deals (during the trip). We do not know, however, how many of those deals will become concrete. The governments create the environment, but the private sector signs the deals," Maggi said. Endi