Portuguese 
Family farmers who set up five hundred and nine stalls at Expointer sold R$ 14.4 million in nine days and broke their own record, while the entire fair totaled R$ 6.18 billion and experienced a 10% drop in attendance.
The 49th edition of the agricultural fair in Esteio, located in the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre, concluded on Sunday, September 6.
The report was presented at a press conference in the International Pavilion of the Assis Brasil Exhibition Park, alongside the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Sustainable Production, and Irrigation of Rio Grande do Sul, according to Times Brasil.
The overall result reached R$ 6.18 billion, an increase of 40% over the R$ 4.42 billion from 2025.
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The Family Agriculture Pavilion Set the Record
Within the billion-dollar result, there is a small number that is the most significant of the fair.
Family agriculture generated R$ 14.401 million, a rise of 5.6%, distributed among 509 exhibitors. This is the highest revenue ever recorded by the pavilion.
It’s not tractor sales.
It’s cheese, cured meats, sweets, preserves, crafts, and colonial products sold at the counter, unit by unit, during nine days of the fair, to those passing through the aisle with bags in hand making instant decisions.
Machinery Drove the Billion-Dollar Result
The bulk of the revenue came from a single segment. Agricultural machinery and implements totaled R$ 5.46 billion, a rise of 44.6%, and accounted for the majority of the overall total.
Other sectors are on a different scale: the automotive industry generated R$ 668.757 million, livestock produced R$ 21.986 million, and crafts brought in R$ 2.111 million.
In other words, when producers start buying harvesters again, the fair’s revenue rises. When they hold back on investments, the numbers drop.
Who Presented the Report and Where
The closing press conference took place at the International Pavilion of the Assis Brasil Exhibition Park on Sunday.
Attending were Márcio Madalena, the state secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Sustainable Production, and Irrigation, and Gustavo Paim, the secretary of Rural Development, as per Times Brasil.
The data released there serves as the official basis used by all media covering the fair’s closure.
The 40% Increase Does Not Recapitalize 2024 Levels
Here, it’s worth looking at the series, not just the year-to-year variation.
Despite the leap over 2025, the result is still 23.6% below the R$ 8.1 billion achieved in 2024. The recovery, therefore, is partial.
Rio Grande do Sul has faced repeated harvest failures and floods in recent years, and Expointer serves as a thermometer for this slow recovery.
When the harvest goes well, producers buy new machinery. When it falters, they delay purchases, repair what they have, and this is felt at the fair in the same year.
That’s why the 40% increase indicates more about 2025 being poor than about 2026 being exceptional.
Attendance Dropped 10%, Contrasting with the Record
The fair welcomed 909,036 visitors, about 10% fewer than in the previous edition.
It’s worth noting that this count is consolidated until 2 PM on Sunday, according to the disclosed report, and not the absolute closing number from the day.
The contrast is the most interesting data from the report: fewer people entering through the gate, yet more deals being closed in the pavilion where smaller transactions are the norm.
Only about 5% of sold machinery remains in Rio Grande do Sul
This is the number that often escapes the headlines.
Of the total machinery traded at the fair, only about 5% stays in the state. The rest goes to other states, according to data presented at the closing ceremony.
Expointer, therefore, functions less as a fair for the region and more as a national showcase. Producers from Mato Grosso or Matopiba close deals in Esteio and take the equipment home.
It’s easy to see why the industry maintains an expensive booth there even in a bad year.
Additionally, much of what is negotiated at the fair was already under discussion prior. The booth serves as a signing point, not a discovery counter, for those purchasing high-value equipment.
Family farming grows through a different engine
While machinery sales depend on credit, interest rates, and harvest expectations, the family farming pavilion relies on those strolling through the aisle with bags in hand.
These are low-ticket items, bought on impulse and trust in the source. Nine days of the fair become revenue for months for many of these families.
There is no financing involved, nor a six-month delivery period. The visitor tries, likes, pays, and takes it home, with the money going into the farm’s cash register the same day.
Therefore, the increase of 5.6% in this pavilion signifies something different from the 44.6% rise in machinery sales. One measures consumer confidence, while the other reflects producers’ confidence in the upcoming year.
Moreover, the pavilion serves a showcase function. Many producers leave with buyer contacts and sales channels for the entire year, information that doesn’t show up in any balance sheet.
What the balance sheet doesn’t answer
None of the sources detail how much of the machinery revenue was closed with subsidized credit, nor what the average rates of these operations are.
The public attendance count has also generated discrepancies among media outlets, with a regional newspaper publishing a higher number. The official aggregate is what counts as a reference.
There is also no breakdown of how many of the 509 family farming exhibitors are cooperatives and how many are individual families.
This type of logistical and commercial bottleneck appears throughout the entire Brazilian agro supply chain, even when it comes to distributing what has been produced, as is the case at the largest grain port in the country, which suffers from a lack of track.
The complete balance, with sector breakdown, can be found in the report by Jornal do Comércio.
What do you think: a fair with fewer visitors and more business is a sign of recovery or of concentration?
