ABSTRACT
The Virtual Water concept has long been used as an important indicator of water consumption, increasingly being accepted in the literature, becoming the embedded water in the production of a good or service. In order to estimate the volume of virtual water present in the top 25 products of Brazilian exports in the period 2003-2014, we used the exploratory method from the main products that represented approximately 60% of the collected amount. Results indicated a shift between the relevance of manufactured products and commodities (mainly iron ore and soybeans) in the 2009-2010 period, with only four products accounting in 2014 for 32% of the revenue earned by the country. As a result, the estimated virtual water expenditure for the products evaluated indicated that Brazil spent, on average, 191 Gm3.year-1 (about 6,025 m3.s-1), with commodities accounting for 95% of this volume. Considering only 2014, this flow increased to about 7,836 m3.s-1, 14 times higher than the supply demand of the Brazilian urban population.
Keywords:
virtual water; virtual water trade; water footprint; Brazilian exportation; water resources management