The Agriculture Channel reported on August 12 that output in Brazil's food and beverage industry rose 2.7 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, while sales were up 0.8 percent, driven by increased exports and retail food consumption in the domestic market, the Association of Brazilian Food Industries (Abia) said. Among them, the output growth range is larger: sugar (year-on-year growth of 22.6%), vegetable oil (year-on-year growth of 3.9%), meat (year-on-year growth of 1.9%). Sales in the food services sector (restaurants, bars, coffee shops, hotel catering, airline and shipping catering, convenience stores) fell 29.5 per cent year on year due to the coVID-19 outbreak. Meanwhile, the food and beverage industry added 10, 300 jobs in the first half, up 0.6 percent from the same period last year.



The analysis of Abia pointed out that the novel Coronavirus epidemic led to an increase in the consumption of home food and stimulated the consumption of domestic food market. Expanding production and responding to coVID-19 isolation have increased the need for labor.