The head of Brazil’s biggest investment bank reckons his country will supply 80 per cent of the extra food needed to feed the world over the next two decades — and plans to seize on the opportunity by making his company “one of the main global players” in commodities.
André Esteves, group chair of BTG Pactual, said the $26bn group, once nicknamed the “Goldman Sachs of the Tropics”, was looking to challenge global trading houses by capitalising on Brazil’s position as a leading exporter of agricultural produce.
“Brazil has a strategic importance which goes beyond its GDP or its military presence,” he told the Financial Times in his first interview in six years. “Brazil is the key provider of food security to the world.”