Brazilian Food Needs Only a Chance MARIA HELENA TACHINARDI 'Globalization insights’ is a series of feature stories told by journalists from Africa, Asia and Latin America – sto­ries that give an insight into the perceptions and experi­ences of people as globalization unfolds in their environs. This project is jointly organized by the Friedrich-Ebert­Stiftung and IPS EUROPA. While expectations are increasing of the greater role the BRICS group(Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) should play in the world economy, there is grow­ing debate also over the competitive advantages of these economies, and what to expect from them in international trade. Brazil is emerging as a country that produces and ex­ports a wide range of technological and value-added products such as aircraft, soybeans, automobiles, iron ore, meat and capital goods. The country is destined to become a giant in industry and agribusiness, in the technology of uranium enrichment, and in biotechnology since it has one of the largest bio­logical reserves on the planet and an extremely mineral­rich soil. The value of one sector does not impede the importance of the other sectors. But this story is about how well agribusiness in Brazil coping with globalization, a synonym for the interdepend­ence between global markets. Although Brazil's share in world trade is still minor, at about 1 percent, the country is a big supplier of foodstuff, and makes good use of its unbeatable competitive ad­vantages. Brazil brings together agricultural technology, an abundance of land that is still cheap, a soil and cli­mate allowing for two harvests per year, and high produc­tivity thanks to a combination of investment in research and technology, private funding of equipment, and mod­ernisation. The private sector in Brazil has expanded manifold ac­ross the territory, expanding the boundaries for the culti­vation of grains and cereals, and for livestock farming. Brazil is the third largest exporter of agricultural products worldwide, trailing only the United States and the Euro­pean Union. It is the leading exporter of soybeans, coffee, orange juice, sugar, beef and chicken. Without domestic or export-related agricultural subsidies in the United States, the European Union and Japan – some of the most important issues at the World Trade Organisation(WTO) Doha round – and sanitary and phy­tosanitary restrictions in the wealthier markets, Brazil would experience a real export boom that its competitors would have difficulty surpassing.