Ecio de Farias Costa

Brazil's New Floating Exchange Rate Regime and Competitiveness in the World Poultry Market

In early 1999, Brazil devalued its currency, increasing its competitiveness in the poultry industry and capturing world market share. This paper discusses the devaluation and its effects on Brazils trade, evaluates preliminary statistics on the impact of the devaluation on world poultry markets, and reports the results from a computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulation of the devaluation. The medium-run CGE results are compared to the short-run impacts reflected in the preliminary statistics.

Análise de eficiência das empresas agrícolas do pólo Petrolina/Juazeiro utilizando a fronteira paramétrica Translog

The irrigation programs started in the late 60’s were chiefly responsible for the impressive development occurred in the Petrolina/Juazeiro areas. Along with irrigation, came some agricultural enterprises that had been previously dedicated to other economic activities such as extensive cattle production. The main hypothesis of this study is that modern technology used in irrigation, combined with input usage, allow for a production level near or at the production frontier. Preliminary studies concluded that there is heterogeneity among enterprises, where similar technological packages are used and fruit production is the dominant production. Therefore, this study analyzes technical efficiency of agricultural enterprises in the studied area using a Translog function model to attain an efficient frontier. Results show that the model has significant efficiency scores. The comparative analysis among main irrigation areas shows that most of the efficient firms are located in the government delimited irrigation areas of Nilo Coelho and ManiA§oba or outside delimited irrigation areas.

Impactos socioeconômicos do cultivo de camarão marinho em municípios selecionados do Nordeste brasileiro

This paper analyses the impact of farmed shrimp on the economy of ten municipalities in the Northeast of Brazil. A model of the municipal economy is developed and input-output tables are used to estimate indirect and induced impacts on job, income and municipal finances. It is concluded that farmed shrimp has a sizable contribution to job increases, in particular formal employment. Indirect and induced impacts are reduced because of spillovers to larger municipalities and other states. Income impacts can be sizable in particular in small counties. In general, the generated income represents a large share of total municipal product. In relation to municipal finance, direct contribution is rather small but indirect, through product increases and mainly transferences from State and Country taxes may be substantial. In conclusion, shrimp farms in the selected municipalities, contributes to expand and stabilize employment, to expand income and product, to increase municipal finances and to improve life conditions.

Direct and indirect job generation in the farmed shrimp production chain 1

Abstract This research identifies and analyzes the direct, indirect and induced jobs generated by the production chain of post larvae hatcheries, shrimp farms and processing plants in Brazil. Using data collected in case studies and auxiliary data, results show that the shrimp production chain generates 1.89 direct jobs per hectare plus 1.86 indirect and induced jobs also per hectare. The number of jobs generated by the shrimp production chain is greater than the number of jobs generated by irrigated fruit production, a sector currently generating many new job opportunities, and greater than the number of generated jobs in sugar and coconut production, typical primary industries of the coastal areas of the Northeast of Brazil.

Adoção de tecnologias poupadoras de água na fruticultura irrigada do Vale do São Francisco: uma comparação entre percepções de colonos e empresas

This study presents a comparative evaluation among farmers vs. small, medium and large enterprises perceptions of the Senador Nilo Coelho and Maria Teresa Irrigated Perimeters in the SA£o Francisco Valley on the adoption of water saving irrigation technologies. The evaluation is carried on by interviewing producers in a field study. All obtained information in questions related to installation and maintenance costs and productivity of the adopted technologies by producers and other available technologies were used to obtain the results presented in this study. Results show that there is some utilization among entrepreneurs of modern irrigation systems. However, adoption rates are low and the knowledge is not present among all producers. For such farmers, the utilization of inadequate irrigation systems is more frequent thus engen-dering in productive inefficiency among farmers.

Mudanças políticas recentes e competitividade no mercado internacional de soja

Although the world market seems to be expanding, with an in-creasing participation of the Asian East, mainly of China, it is still subject to much debate related to the use of genetic modii¬ ed varieties, to commer-cial disputes within WTO due to agriculture protection, and to effects of ALCA’s establishment, joining the three main exporters. In the short run, emphasis was given to the last two American agricultural bills which raised their subsidies to their soybean producers and the adoption by Brazil and by Argentine, in 1999 and 2002, respectively, of i¬‚oating exchange systems, with drastic currency devaluation. The effects of the recent political changes are analyzed using a general equilibrium model. The conclusions indicate that currency devaluation in Brazil and Argentine more than compensated the increase in the American subsidies to its soybean producers, Brazil being mostly benei¬ ted; For Brazil, particularly, the world market expansion appears promising, since its the only exporter with the possibility of largely increasing its production and it has competitive costs.

Price Risk Management for Peanut Meal

Abstract Peanut meal is cross-hedged with soybean meal using peanut meal cash prices and soybean meal futures prices. Hedge ratios are obtained for a 3-year and a 6-year period model. The data is from 1993 to 2000, with the 2000 data used for evaluation. All hedge ratios are significant and the 3-year period models results suggest that long term data sets have less explanatory power than short-term hedge ratios. Evaluation results indicate positive gains for cross-hedged poultry producers and/or peanut producers. The empirical analyses suggest that soybean meal futures can be used as a potential cross-hedging vehicle for peanut meal.