President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign platform for a possible fourth term has shifted its language toward agribusiness. Unlike the 2022 programme, which discussed the sector mainly alongside family farming, land reform, sustainability and food security, the new document explicitly describes agribusiness as essential to Brazil's trade balance and gross domestic product.
The platform says productive efficiency should be combined with environmental sustainability and technological innovation. It also calls for Brazil to add more value to its export basket and reduce the relative weight of raw commodities in foreign trade, turning the sector's scale into broader industrial and commercial gains.
The change follows a period in which agribusiness helped the government negotiate exemptions from higher US tariffs. Washington's levy currently starts at 25 percent after reaching 50 percent the previous year, while beef, coffee and orange juice received exceptions after government negotiations supported by farm exporters.
The 2022 programme placed greater emphasis on the social role of agriculture. It connected family, traditional and sustainable commercial farming with healthier food, lower production costs, organic and agroecological output, land access and a goal of removing Brazil from the Hunger Map. That objective was achieved in July 2025.
Agribusiness remains a difficult political constituency for Lula because much of the sector traditionally aligns with conservative forces. Presidential opponents Ronaldo Caiado, Romeu Zema and Flávio Bolsonaro are competing for that electorate. Lula has announced measures such as credit for indebted rural producers, but has often been absent from events directed at large commercial farming.
Vice President Geraldo Alckmin has frequently represented the administration in federal initiatives for the sector and maintains stronger channels with its leaders. Lula missed the business-farming section of this year's annual Plano Safra while travelling in Paraguay, then attended the ceremony for small producers after returning to Brazil.
The new platform promises broader financial support. It proposes diversifying funding channels through capital markets and agribusiness securities, simplifying credit procedures and establishing clearer criteria. Science and technology policy also places agribusiness among the priorities of a network intended to finance innovation, connect research with production and raise productivity.
Presented on August 7, the programme also includes changes to the congressional-amendment system, stronger sovereignty language, regulation of digital platforms and an end to the six-day workweek. Its agribusiness chapter is therefore both an economic proposal and a political signal: the campaign is trying to widen Lula's coalition without abandoning its commitments to sustainability, small farmers and food security.
