For January to September 2017, exports of chicken and pig meat from Brazil still remain behind last year’s figures, but a new agreement with Singapore offers the prospect of a boost to Brazilian pork exports.
Figures published by the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) point to a recovery in trade for both meats.
Pork exports down after record-setting 2016
For pork, the monthly shipments were down dramatically compared to last year but, as Ricardo Santin, ABPA's vice president of markets explained, this was because exports in September of 2016 broke all previous records at 63,000 metric tons. In the same month of 2017, exports amounted to 52,200 metric tons.
In terms of value, this trade was valued at US$126.5 million, almost 18 percent below the figure from 2016.
For Brazilian pork exports for the year so far, the picture is brighter. Although shipments for the January-September 2017 period were down by 4.2 percent compared with last year at 453,900 metric tons, sales revenue was up by 17.3 percent at US$1.132 billion.
Last week, Brazil’s agriculture minister announced that agreement had been reached to open Singapore to exports of Brazilian pork from all regions of the country.
Turra welcomed the move, saying that the market in the Asian state is growing at around 2 percent per year.
Previously, Singapore would only accept meat from the state of Santa Caterina, which is free of foot and mouth disease (FMD) without vaccination, but it was already the fourth largest importer of Brazilian pork. Under the new agreement, Singapore accepts Brazilian pork and beef from all states, including those that use vaccination to maintain FMD-free status.
Brazilian chicken meat exports stable
ABPA’s chief executive, Francisco Turra attributed the good performance in poultry meat exports in September to strong sales to South Africa, the United Arab Emirate, Qatar, and Mexico.
Compared with the same month last year, shipped volume of all chicken products (raw and processed) was up by 0.2 percent at 386,900 metric tons, while the value of those sales was slightly higher at almost US$640.8 million.
At 3.309 million metric tons, Brazil’s chicken meat exports for the year so far lag around 70,000 metric tons behind those of last year. However, the revenue from the trade in 2017 is 5.5 percent higher at US$5.526 billion.
