Brazil papayas. The industry – from automobiles, steel and petrochemicals to computers, aircraft and consumer durables – accounted for 30.8% of the gross domestic product. Industry is highly concentrated in metropolitan São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Porto Alegre, and Belo Horizonte. Brazil has become the fourth largest car market in the world. Major export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned beef. In total, Brazil ranks 23rd worldwide in value of exports. Brazil pegged its currency, the real, to the U.S. dollar in 1994. However, after the East Asian
Name of Brazil Name of Brazil The name "Brazil" is a shortened form of "Terra do Brasil", "land of Brazil", a reference to brazilwood, given in the early 16th century to the territories leased to the merchant consortium led by Fernão de Loronha for commercial exploitation of brazilwood for the production of wood dyes for the European textile industry. The term for the brazilwood tree in Portuguese, "pau-brasil", is derived from "brasa" ("ember"), a reference to the colour, formed from medieval Latin "brasa", from Old French "brese", "ember, glowing charcoal", in turn from a West Germanic "*brasa"). The land of what became Brazil