The volatility and uncertainty existing at the onset of the global economic recession slowed the growth of production and trade worldwide. However, in 2008, agricultural markets were still growing rapidly in terms of the volume of transactions, and prices for major commodities continued to rise. As a result of this situation, combined with low income (or price) elasticity of demand for agricultural exports, in contrast with the other sectors of the economy, the annual rate of growth of the value of agricultural exports worldwide almost saw their surpluses rise during the same period. For the purpose of identifying the causes of gains or losses recession, this article explains the behavior of agricultural exports and of agricultural terms of trade, based on several explanatory variables: international prices for agricultural commodities, the composition of agricultural agricultural exports and the formalization of free trade agreements with the major trading partners.