Brazil and food imports

FOODS

Beyond Europe and North America, Brazil was the UK’s leading food supplier by volume and a major supplier by value, sending around 1.4 billion kilograms (or 1.4 million tonnes) of food worth nearly £1.2 billion last year. This is similar in value to imports from China and the United States but significantly higher in volume, underscoring Brazil’s central role in what ends up on British plates. Some of the foods most affected:

Soy

The UK’s closest connection with Brazil is for soy, which underpins intensive livestock production. In 2024, the UK imported £243 million of Brazilian soy — around 60% of total soy imports. Around 90% of imported soy is used for animal feed. Extreme weather has increasingly disrupted soy production in Brazil. Droughts and heatwaves have affected the Amazon, Cerrado and southern grain belts, with record-low river levels in 2024–25 delaying exports. The 2023 Amazon drought was found to be around 30 times more likely because of human-induced climate change.

Deforestation and climate change are leading to less rainfall, undermining natural cooling systems and damaging agricultural productivity — climate change is projected to reduce soy yields by roughly 6% for every 1°C of warming.

Coffee

Brazil is our largest supplier of green coffee beans, typically providing 30–35% of the UK’s unroasted beans, worth around £225 million in 2024. As the world’s top producer of Arabica, much of the coffee arriving via European partners also originates from Brazil.

Coffee is among the most climate-sensitive crops, with 97% of production occurring in countries highly vulnerable to climate change. In Brazil, hot and dry conditions linked to El Niño reduced expected yields in the 2023/24 harvest, driving price spikes that peaked in March 2025.

Chicken 

Chicken is one of the UK’s most valuable direct food imports from Brazil, reflecting its role as a global poultry powerhouse. In 2024, the UK imported £143 million — about 51,000 tonnes — of Brazilian chicken, or 13% of total UK chicken imports, below the 95,370-tonne tariff-free quota agreed post-Brexit.

Brazil’s poultry sector is closely linked to its soy industry, since soymeal is the main protein feed for broilers. This means the environmental consequences of and pressures on soy, namely deforestation, drought and rising temperatures, also affect poultry supply chains.

Beef 

Brazil is the world’s second largest beef producer and the largest exporter. Brazil is an important supplier of beef to the UK, accounting for 5–10% of imports in 2024 — around £91 million worth — making it the second-largest source after Ireland. Most export-oriented beef comes from the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. These regions have faced severe droughts and record heat in recent years, worsening pasture stress and water scarcity.

Extensive cattle ranching is the number one culprit of deforestation in virtually every Amazon country, and it accounts for 80% of current deforestation. This deforestation is not only responsible for 3.4% of global emissions each year, but is pushing us close tipping point that could see the Amazonian ecosystem become too dry to sustain itself.

Tropical fruit and sugar

In 2024, the UK imported around £48 million of guavas, mangoes and mangosteens (29% of UK imports), £49 million of fresh melons excluding watermelons (48%), and £36 million of fresh watermelons (29%). Imports of fresh limes were worth £23 million (87%), while fresh papayas totalled £11 million (86%).

Raw cane sugar is another key commodity, with UK imports from Brazil worth around £97 million in 2024, accounting for roughly 37% of total UK sugar imports. These flows of fruit and sugar contribute to year-round food availability and manufacturing supply in the UK while supporting agricultural livelihoods in Brazil.

Brazil’s fruit and sugar exports are increasingly exposed to climate extremes. In recent years, prolonged droughts and record heat have strained crops and water systems across key producing regions, with strong scientific evidence that human-driven climate change has made such events far more likely.

Orange juice

Brazil is the world’s dominant citrus producer, producing roughly one-third of all oranges globally and supplying over 70% of the world’s orange juice exports, largely from the state of São Paulo. Orange juice remains one of the most visible links between UK consumers and Brazilian agriculture, reflecting both countries’ deep trade ties in agri-food commodities.

However, the sector has been hit hard by climate stress and disease pressures. Prolonged droughts, heatwaves and the spread of citrus greening disease have reduced yields and squeezed processing capacity, contributing to higher prices over the past decade.

NB — references and links are in the full report — download at the top of the page.