Chinese brands like Mixue, BYD, and Geely are surging into Brazil, leveraging strong trade ties and local strategies for growth
Chinese companies – from sectors as diverse as bubble tea, budget retail and cars – are expanding their presence in Brazil, with analysts saying the robust trade ties between China and Latin America’s biggest economy could help pave the way for further investment.
Mixue Group, known for its affordable ice cream and beverages, opened its first Brazil outlet on Saturday, drawing large crowds in Sao Paulo, the country’s largest city. The opening marked its third store in the Americas after launching shops in Los Angeles and Mexico City.
The Chinese budget bubble tea chain said a second store in Brazil was in the works and would open soon. Around 20 products were available in the Sao Paulo store at opening, with ice cream priced at roughly 4 yuan (US$0.60) and lemonade at 7.8 yuan. It also introduced an acai-berry flavoured ice cream to cater to local tastes.
“China’s consumer names are performing well in Brazil, mainly driven by their ability to offer attractive pricing and execute effective localisation strategies,” said Sandy Lim, a China consumer analyst at S&P Global Ratings. “We believe Mixue’s core strengths in China – its low-price offerings and strong sourcing and supply chain management – are likely to form its key playbook in Brazil as well.”
The country of about 210 million people has a large young consumer base. Its ready-to-drink beverage market was growing at a solid pace, providing enough room for Mixue’s growth in the country, the retailer said.
Bilateral trade between China and Brazil reached US$171 billion in 2025, up 8.2 per cent from the previous year, according to Brazil’s ministry of development, industry, commerce and services.
President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed to advance bilateral relations during a phone call in August. Xi said China-Brazil ties were at their historic best. Lula said Brazil highly valued its relations with China and looked forward to strengthening cooperation.
“Favourable China-Brazil trade relations should help support a smoother investment experience,” Lim said. “This is particularly important, given that geopolitical stability is often a key consideration for Chinese companies expanding overseas.”
Mixue signed a memorandum of understanding with ApexBrasil, the trade and investment promotion agency, last year. The company plans to source at least 4 billion yuan worth of goods from Brazil over the next three to five years, including coffee beans, fruits and other agricultural products, while also building a local supply chain.
Victor Queiroz, chief representative officer of ApexBrasil in the Asia-Pacific region, said on Saturday that by 2030 the cooperation between the two sides would create as many as 25,000 jobs.
Chinese budget retailer Miniso, which entered Brazil in 2017, opened 37 stores in its first year. Toymaker Pop Mart recently set up a local subsidiary but has yet to launch physical stores.
Meanwhile, Brazil has become a major export market and an investment magnet for Chinese manufacturers, as they shift their focus to emerging economies due to continuing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Top Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers including BYD have gravitated to Brazil, after reporting sizzling sales in South America’s largest car market.
“Chinese-made electric cars, with convincing intelligent features and stylish designs, have won considerable market share from conventional US petrol car brands in Brazil,” said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. “The market is now a major growth driver for BYD and its smaller domestic rivals.”
In 2025, Chinese carmakers shipped 200,825 EVs to Brazil, their fifth-largest export destination, up 46 per cent from a year earlier, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.
In mid-2025, BYD, the world’s largest EV builder, opened its first Brazilian plant, expressing hopes that a localised production and supply chain would enhance the competitiveness of its cars in South America.
The US$620 million plant in northeastern Bahia state has an annual production capacity of 150,000 units.
In November, Geely Auto, China’s second-largest carmaker, along with its parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, bought a 26.4 per cent stake in Renault Group’s Renault do Brasil, enabling it to assemble and sell electric cars through the French firm’s operations in the country.
Vehicles under both the Geely and Renault brands would be assembled at the plant in Sao Jose dos Pinhais, in southern Parana state, the French group said.
“Economic and trade cooperation between China and Latin America has shifted from simple merchandise trade to commercial investment, and further extended to building local supply chains,” said Yue Yunxia, deputy director of the Institute of Latin America at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Source: South China Morning Post
