How sophisticated is Brazilian agribusiness? An exploratory analysis based on productivity and complexity

The significant growth of Brazilian agribusiness has contributed to spreading a collective perception that Brazil produces with high levels of efficiency and has a competitive advantage in a wide range of sophisticated products. But is this image an accurate representation of Brazilian agribusiness in an international context? To answer this question and to analyze the sources of agricultural productivity differences between countries, was adopted the economic complexity approach. The results indicated that, despite all the scale, the complexity of Brazilian agribusiness products is at an intermediate stage, far from the countries with the highest value added per worker in agriculture. In addition, as suggested by theory, we found a positive association between labor productivity in agriculture and the agribusiness complexity up to the year 2012, when the signal reverses—possibly owing to the greater importance of south-south agricultural flows and the protectionist movements in the post international crisis period. In conclusion, even though Brazilian agro can be qualified as pop, it does not seem appropriate to define it as high tech, especially if the reference is to the labor productivity and product complexity of leading countries. The construction of complexity in agribusiness goes beyond the boundaries of traditional agricultural development policies. Industrial policies aimed at building complexity need to be comprehensive enough to identify key products and the fundamental capabilities for their successful market performance. This applies to products and industrial sectors as well as to agribusiness.