Brazil remains the world's largest coffee producer and exporter. However, other crops are growing in importance. Farming in Brazil is going through a period of important change.
Brazil has many different types of soil.
It also has variations in climate hot and dry in the north east, warm ar very wet in Amazonia and along the edge of the Great Escarpment in the south east, and more temperate elsewhere along the coast and on the central plateau. As a result, Brazilian farmers can produce an enormous variety of crops. They can also grow cotton and sugar cane, tropic fruits such as avocado pears and bananas, sub-tropical coffee and cocoa beans, Mediterranean oranges and lemons, and temperate apples and grapes. Forest products like rubber, nuts, waxes and fibres which used to be gathered from wild trees are now largely grown in plantations. Most of the crops are grown for food - but not all.