Abstract

SANTOS, Daniela Tatiane dos; BATALHA, Mário Otávio  and  PINHO, Marcelo. The evolution of food consumption in China and its effects on the Brazilian agricultural exports. Rev. econ. contemp. [online]. 2012, vol.16, n.2, pp. 333-358. ISSN 1415-9848.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-98482012000200008.

This paper analyzes the changes in food consumption in China and its impact on Brazilian agribusiness exports. Chinese economic growth in recent decades has caused major structural changes in world demand for food and huge increases in Brazilian exports of agricultural origin to China. The analysis is based on consumption information made available by FAO and the foreign trade of Brazil provided by SECEX. We have analyzed the data on Chinese consumption of most food products and by contrasting them with the path of consumption in richer countries, searched for evidences of market saturation. The main findings are: (i) evidences of declining growth rates in most food markets in China; (ii) for some very important foodstuffs, the achievement of consumption levels close to the Japanese and Korean standards; (iii) low penetration of imports in the Chinese markets of final food products for human use; and (iv) high concentration of Brazilian agribusiness exports to the country in a small number of productive chains.

Keywords : Food consumption; agribusiness exports; agricultural commodities; China.