Impactos Socioeconômicos de Reduções nas Perdas Pós-colheita de Produtos Agrícolas no Brasil

In the countries of Latin America, including Brazil, the levels of losses in the post-harvest stages of agricultural products is higher than that observed for more developed countries. The present study estimated the impacts of reduction in post-harvest losses of agricultural products to levels observed in countries of high income. We calculated this reduction and, using the input-output matrix of Brazil, estimated the impacts that this drop in losses could have on the Brazilian economy. These impacts are due to the increase in the following services: processing, transportation and trade, which would be included in those products recovered. The reduction in post-harvest losses would imply an increase of R$ 9.8 billion in the value of agricultural production (in 2012 values). In addition, it can be seen that the direct, indirect and income effects of an increase in demand for services (processing, transport and trade) caused by the increase of supply, can raise the value of output of the economy in R$ 18 billion, the country’s GDP in R$ 9.7 billion and generate more than 300,000 jobs. These results illustrate that, in view of the great importance of agricultural products for the Brazilian economy, the reduction in losses after harvest can generate substantial economic benefits for the country.