This work analyses Brazilian tropical wood exports for principal forest species, over the period of 1980-98. Tendency models were built to estimate the growth rate and to explain the export performance for each species. The results pointed out that the principal tropical species exported were, in decreasing order, mahogany, jatoba, virola, cedar, angelim, ipe, andiroba, sucupira, tatajuba, cedrorana, assacu, cerejeira, pau-marfim, freijo and jacaranda. Only six species represented 40% of volume and total exported revenue. The species said less known increased their exports from 1991. The exported volume of mahogany, virola, andiroba, sucupira and freijo decreased, on the other hand jatoba, cedar, ipe and cerejeira have increased their share in the international market. About price, all studied species showed a positive tendency along studied period and value relatively low in comparison to the mahogany price..
Economic analysis; tropical wood; exports; Brazil