This article explores the relationship between the rise of Brazil as an agribusiness powerhouse, the country's recent economic upswing and its subsequent crisis. Agribusiness is analysed in the context of the overall dynamics of production, trade and capital flows that have emerged since the neoliberal policy reforms of the 1990s. Statistical series on the country's Balance of Payments (BoP), macroeconomic and sector parameters show that the expansion of agribusiness is part and parcel of a policy-induced phenomenon of primary commodities export specialisation, which conjugates with BoP fragility, the reproduction of debt and external dependence -the core of the current crisis. Important parameters justifying the country's membership of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa), such as the level of foreign reserves, inflow of foreign investments or GDP growth, have hinged upon the performance of its agribusiness sector. In 2007, when commodity prices peaked, most of the developing world suffered, but Brazil had its best economic performance in years, with 6.1% economic growth. Following the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, the economy had a hiccup but continued to flourish -reaching a 7.5% growth rate in 2010 -while advanced economies were still in economic distress. However, even though the agricultural sector has kept breaking harvest and revenue records until today, Brazil plunged into the most severe economic crisis of the last 25 years in 2011, when growth fell to 3.9%, then to 1.9% in 2012, 0.1% in 2014 and −3.8% in 2015, thus technically entering into recession. 1 With cuts in credit, social spending, investments, wages