CHINA:
RUSSIA
Brazil is increasingly seen as a "feeding bowl" for China and India. The growing demand for food in these two rising giants has forced them to turn to Brazil, where agriculture and livestock play a crucial economic role.
Brazil is leading the way in soyabean production; it is currently the world's No. 2 exporter of soy beans and in the past two years it exported just over 25 million tons -- China alone imported 10 million tons of that share. Soy is often used to feed livestock and with China 's appetite for beef rising, so too does its appetite for cattle feed.
Brazil is also a world leader in the bio-fuel industry – many of the country's cars run on ethanol, a product made from cheap sugarcane. As more land is cleared to plant sugarcane rather than crops for food, critics of these programs complain this demand for bio-fuels is also responsible for causing international food shortages, thus pushing up food prices.
Meanwhile, Brazil has itself been feeling the heat of rising food prices, primarily in wheat.