Brazilian agriculture ground to a standstill over the last week as a strike by truckers crippled the country’s transport infrastructure network. Brazilian truckers initiated a strike last week over soaring fuel prices, which came about after a jump in international oil prices at the same time as the Brazilian currency (the Real) depreciated sharply against the US dollar.

The strike severely disrupted Brazil’s vast agriculture sector and forced many businesses to suspend operations. Beef processing in Brazil almost totally ceased operations in the last week. JBS, the world’s largest meat processor, suspended all slaughtering at its beef, pork and chicken plants in Brazil because of the strike as it could not deliver to its customers.

Animal feed deliveries have also been severely disrupted by the strike with Brazil’s meat industry body, BAAP, saying that 70m chickens had been culled due to a lack of feed.

The strike also affected Brazil’s soya bean and sugar industries with large exporters forced to suspend export shipments because of a lack of supply arriving at ports. Brazil’s sugar industry, the largest in the world, also ceased production in recent days due to a lack of diesel to continue the sugar cane harvest.

On Sunday, Brazil’s president Michel Temer offered to cut the price of diesel by 12% and reduce tolls on empty trucks.

The deal was accepted by the main truck drivers’ union but a significant number of truckers continue to strike.

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