Brazil's dried legume exports to Portugal surge 9x since 2023

Brazil is becoming a primary legume supplier for Portugal, and the growth pace is not slowing. It is accelerating. Exports of dried shelled beans and legumes reached US$22.3 million in 2025, up from US$2.4 million in 2023. That is 9 times the original value in two years. Data: MDIC ComexStat.

The year-by-year trajectory

In 2024, shipment value nearly tripled versus the prior year, reaching US$6.6 million, a +174% jump over the 2023 base. In 2025, the pace accelerated in absolute terms: +236%, pushing the total to US$22.3 million. When the percentage rate increases on an already-expanded base, base effects stop explaining the result. Demand is compounding. The consecutive acceleration is the signal worth tracking.

Dried legumes in this category include beans, lentils, and dried peas. These are plant proteins with growing European demand as consumers diversify protein sources beyond meat. Brazil is the world's largest producer of common beans and a significant exporter of other legumes in the category, with exportable surpluses that fluctuate with domestic harvests and international prices.

What is driving the advance

Portugal has one of the highest per-capita bean consumption rates in Europe. The country is structurally import-dependent in this category. Domestic production does not meet internal demand. Historically, a significant share of supply came from Angola and Mozambique, along with other Portuguese-speaking African countries. Brazil, with competitive production costs and scalable volumes, has captured share in that supply basket over the past two years.

Currency dynamics have played a meaningful role. With the Brazilian real depreciated through the 2023 to 2025 window, Brazilian beans landed cheaper in Lisbon than competing origins, even after accounting for freight. Logistics also favor Brazil. Regular shipping services from Paranaguá and Santos to Lisbon maintain predictable freight costs for medium-term contracts, which is exactly what industrial buyers need to plan their supply chain.

Post-pandemic supply diversification is the structural context. After the supply disruptions of 2020 to 2022, European food importers deliberately expanded their sourcing geographies. Brazil entered that expanded roster with consistent delivery performance and adequate volume for mid-size buyers. That initial credibility is now compounding into contract renewals and rising order volumes.

What changes for the supply chain

Portugal's domestic market is limited by population size, around 10 million inhabitants with high per-capita consumption but constrained aggregate scale. What amplifies the potential is re-export. Portugal redistributes to lusophone communities across Europe, particularly in France and Germany. It also serves as a logistics entry point for smaller European distributors that do not have the volume to contract directly with Brazil.

For operators tracking the dried legume trade flow, Portugal has moved from peripheral to strategic in under 24 months. Euro-paying buyers with regular procurement cycles and consistent phytosanitary standards tend to renew contracts. Churn risk is lower than in spot markets.

The three-year curve signals that this commercial relationship is transitioning from experimental to structural. That changes the capacity planning calculus for Brazilian exporters looking ahead to 2027.