Improving Agricultural Market Performance:
Creation and Development of Market Institutions
56
additional responsibility and a mission to “promote greater efficiency in the crops and
agricultural product industry; provide enhanced services in Agricultural Research and
Extension and Crop Protection; and allow effective administration and regulation of trade,
commerce and export of crops and agricultural products.”108
In addition, the GMC was revamped and its mission expanded, with a primary focus on
expanding agricultural exports through technical and business advisory services, market
intelligence, increasing value added, and export promotion.
Combined, the transformation has been successful: in 2005, rice and sugar were the main
agricultural exports, with rice exports of US$46.2 million and sugar exports of US$118 million.
Sugar exports depended on preferential quotas, most of which have eroded, so sugar is no
longer a significant export. Rice is still important, with 2016 exports of US$242 million, or 15%
of total exports. But non-traditional exports, including vegetables, fruit, and animal products,
were valued at US$532 million.
Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation
The APP report cites Brazil as an example, a country where “agricultural Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) growth has tended to exceed overall GDP growth over the past two decades…
Brazil’s success was the result not of a quick fix, but of long-term policies and the development
of institutions, notably the Brazilian Agricultural Research Consortium, or EMBRAPA, and
institutions aimed at strengthening the productivity of family farms.” EMBRAPA was founded
in 1973 as a public company under the aegis of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock,
and Food Supply. Governance has been critical to its success: EMPRAPA is overseen by a
National Advisory Board (CAN), which analyzes the public policy and institutional
arrangements needed to maximize Brazilian technological innovation in Brazilian agriculture.
The Board also helps define priorities and goals for the corporation’s research programming
and technology transfer.
The National Advisory Board has 40 members representing both public and private entities,
including: the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, the Brazilian Association of Rural Market &
Agribusiness, the Brazilian Supermarket Association and Brazilian Agribusiness Association,
the National Confederation of Workers in Agriculture, the Brazilian Cooperative Organisation,
financial institutions, and several national commissions and councils responsible for food
security, scientific and technological development, and environment and renewable energy.
EMPRAPA’s activities and programs include:
 Agropensa, a strategic intelligence system, aimed at producing and disseminating
knowledge and information to support the formulation of research, development, and
innovation strategies for the company and for partner institutions. Agropensa works
towards mapping and supporting the organization, integration and dissemination of
agricultural information and databases;
108 National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (2016), About Us, available a
[Accessed July 2017].