[Satellite News 08-19-08] Economists see a bright future for Brazil’s economy, and while Brazil is insulated from a majority of the global economic downturn, surging food prices still concern the agricultural superpower.
    To help combat the rise in commodities, Brazil is making an aggressive approach, Maria Velez de Berliner, president of Latin Intelligence Corp., told Satellite News. “The only direction for the satellite imaging market in Brazil is up,” she said. “The future of the economy in Brazil is going to depend on food prices and access to biofuel resources, mainly water. Satellite imagery will be key in locating these resources as well as tracking soil and atmospheric conditions for plantations.”
    The economic buzz over Brazil has satellite players, specifically Loral and Intelsat, jumping into the overlooked growth market, said Velez de Berliner. “I would encourage satellite investors to look at the Brazilian satellite industry deals with China,” she said. “China has made several deals with the country’s satellite imaging companies to come up with solutions to its pollution and environmental problems. These are big projects and they will only develop into larger deals.”
    One such program, the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) program, was born from a partnership between Brazil and China in the space technical scientific segment. The program has produced CBERS-1 and -2, developed by Brazil and launched by China’s Long March rocket.
    Edward Jurkevics, founder and principal analyst from Chesapeake Analytics, agrees with Velez de Berliner on the growth potential of the Brazilian market. “Satellite imagery is also being used to monitor the Amazon’s deforestation. These are urgent applications for South America,” he said.
    But although the programs provide healthy growth opportunities for Brazil’s satellite market, these programs to date largely have been dominated by China, said Jurkevics.        
    “Brazil has been crucial in developing the technology,” he said. “The Chinese have been more aggressive with its control.”
    The impact on Brazil’s political structure also has yet to be seen, said Jurkevics. “The military still has an established dictatorship, but it has not had an effect on the market so far,” he said. “The problem a few years ago with Brazil’s satellite imagery market was that there was no foreign currency for funding. Now the country is seeing more of these investments come in, so the growth potential in the next few years could see positive results, depending on the domestic economy.”
    Private companies involved in agriculture also are looking to take advantage of satellite technology. Allianz, a Brazilian insurer of farm equipment, announced in July it was looking into expanding its agribusiness interests by testing a satellite imaging program at about 750 farms.
    "For our farm insurance, we’re in the process of running a satellite imaging pilot scheme in two of the states with the greatest concentration of farm business – São Paulo and Paraná," Luiz Carlos Meleiro, head of Agribusiness at Allianz Brasil, said in a statement. "We will run the pilot for three years. This will give us adequate time to build a mathematical model on which to build actuarial assessments." 
    Other sectors in Brazil are seeking satellite-based solutions as well.
    Avidyne Corp. has made two-way text messaging available for Latin America using its two-way datalink transceiver, the MLX770, as well as Avidyne’s network operations center and the Iridium constellation. The MLX770 plans to make broadcast weather data and two-way communications available to international customers who have not previously had access to it.
    Globalstar has signed agreements and expanded the international distribution of the Spot satellite messenger to Brazil. The agreements, announced Aug. 11, increased the addressable market for the Spot Satellite Messenger by more than half a billion people, the company said.
    With U.S. businesses looking more and more to invest into Brazil’s agricultural industry, with its economics in the right place and the country’s launch activity well ahead of schedule, can the South American powerhouse exceed the expectations it set for itself three years ago?