The increase in soybean and oil exports led the trade balance to record the highest surplus for the month of April since the start of the historical series, the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, and Services announced on Thursday (May 7). Last month, exports exceeded imports by USD 10.537 billion.

The result represents a 37.5 percent increase compared to the same month in 2025, when the surplus stood at USD 7.664 billion. Since the start of the historical series in 1989, this is the third-highest surplus for any month, surpassed only by May 2023 (USD 10.978 billion) and March 2023 (USD 10.751 billion).

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The value of exports and imports was as follows:

Exports: USD 34.148 billion, up 14.3 percent compared to April last year.
Imports: USD 23.611 billion, up 6.2 percent in the same comparison.

For both exports and imports, these figures also represent records for the month of April since the beginning of the historical series.

Year-to-date

In the first four months of the year, the trade balance recorded a surplus of USD 24.782 billion, a figure 43.5 percent higher than that recorded in the same period last year. In addition to the recovery in commodities (primary goods traded on international markets), this growth is due to the import of an oil rig in February 2025, a transaction that did not occur in 2026.

The breakdown was as follows:

Exports: USD 116.552 billion, up 9.2 percent compared to the same period last year.
Imports: USD 91.770 billion, up 2.5 percent in the same comparison.

The cumulative surplus is the second largest in the historical series, surpassed only by the first four months of 2024 (USD 26.925 billion).

Products

The main products responsible for the increase in exports in April were as follows:

• Agriculture and livestock: soybeans (+18.8%), cotton (+43.7%), and live animals, excluding fish and crustaceans (+148.4%);
• Extractive industry: crude petroleum oils (+10.6%), iron ore (+19.5%), and copper ores (+55%);
• Manufacturing: fresh, chilled, or frozen beef (+29.4%), non-monetary gold, excluding gold ores and concentrates (+75.9%), and pumps, centrifuges, air compressors, and fans (+321.5%).

In absolute terms, the two items that drove monthly growth the most were soybeans, with exports up by USD 1.105 billion compared to April last year, driven by the harvest and rising prices. Next was crude oil, with an increase of USD 458.98 million.

In the case of oil, the volume exported fell by 10.6 percent, but the average price rose by 23.7 percent due to the war in the Middle East.

Imports

Regarding imports, the increase is mainly linked to vehicles, with purchases from abroad rising by USD 654.33 million in April compared to the same month in 2025.