Economic Activities
The most important economic activities are cattle raising, commerce, and agriculture. The GDP in 2005 was R$400 million, with 230 million generated by services, 36 million generated by industry, and 95 million generated by agriculture. Monte Carmelo is in the top tier of municipalities in the state with regard to economic and social development. As of 2007, there were five banking agencies in the town. There was a well-developed retail infrastructure serving the surrounding area of cattle and agricultural lands. There were 8,603 automobiles in all of the municipality (2007), about one for every five inhabitants.
There are three dairy industries with production of cheese and liquid yogurt. There are seven industries producing spices. There are two coffee processing industries. Other industries produce furniture, textiles, chemical products, and soap. Monte Carmelo is considered the capital of the roof tile due to the number of ceramic industries. Tiles are shipped to all the regions of the country. There are also traditional handicraft workshops producing clay pots and water filters.
Monte Carmelo has a large portion of its economy based on agriculture and livestock raising. In the rural area there were 1,391 establishments (2006) occupying 115,000 hectares (planted area—31,800 ha, and natural pasture—60,000 ha). About 9,000 persons were dependent on agriculture with 6,500 workers hired by farms. 400 of the farms had tractors, a ratio of one in three farms. There were 53,000 head of cattle in 2006, half of which were milk cows. There is a well-developed poultry raising sector producing two million chickens a year and one million seven hundred thousand turkeys a year. The main crops were:
- coffee: 12,000 hectares with 45 million trees
- avocado:200 hectares
- rubber:70 hectares
- passion fruit:200 hectares
- rice: 280 hectares
- beans: 1,200 hectares
- corn: 7,000 hectares
- soybeans: 7,000 hectares
- sorghum: 200 hectares
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