The wide (un)sustainability ranges of agroexporting territories: Insights from Uruguay

Agroexporting countries play a central role in global food and biomaterials supply, yet their strong external orientation influences the way economic, social, and environmental tensions are navigated at the national scale. Here, we examined how global trade shapes sustainability outcomes in Uruguay through an integrated assessment of key producing sectors: meat, dairy, grains, rice, fruits, vegetables and forestry. We quantified sectoral size, market orientation, multidimensional performance, and the value distribution across farms. We showed that export-oriented land use grew from 74% to 83% between 2005 and 2022, reallocating >1.5 Mha (9% of land) toward external markets. Over the same period, shifts in sectoral composition increased national socioeconomic output. However, sectors differed sharply in their intrinsic footprints (e.g., up to 19-fold differences in water use and 16-fold in pesticide use) and in the biophysical and social pressures associated with generating economic outcomes. Per unit of value generated, pesticide use across export-oriented sectors ranged from 0.43 to 5.10 g per USD, while water use ranged from -1.39 to 7.35 m³ per USD, implying that compositional shifts toward higher economic output can produce substantial yet contrasting sustainability outcomes. Concentration was marked, with large farms (<0.5% of farms) capturing 28% of gross production value, mainly fueled by forestry and grains. Together, these results confirm that both the extent of territory exposed to global markets and the sectors occupying that space critically shape aggregated footprints. Which sectors occupy the export-oriented land and who captures value ultimately determine national trajectories, making outcomes contingent and politically contested.