Brazil recorded continued increases in exports of chicken meat and pork in March, according to the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA).
Pork exports
Exports of fresh pork for the month reached 56,700 metric tons (mt), which is 85.1 percent more than in the same month last year. The value of the trade in foreign exchange was US$99.1 million, 31 percent higher than last March, while the value in local currency was up 54.4 percent at BRR367.1 million.
For the first quarter of the year, 139,700 mt of fresh pork was exported by Brazil, which represents an increase of 82.9 percent over last year. That was worth US$247.2 million or BRR961 million or 25 percent and 68.7 percent, respectively, more than the same period of 2015.
“The result for March is a record for fresh pork shipments,” said Francisco Turra, chief executive of ABPA. “There were increases to a number of destinations, such as Russia (by 75 percent) as well as Hong Kong, Singapore and China.”
Chicken meat exports
Total chicken meat shipments by Brazil amounted to 403,400 mt in March, which is 15.6 percent more than a year ago. This figures covers all products (fresh, salted, sausages and processed). With a value of US$584.3 million, this represents an increase of almost 1 percent from March 2015 in foreign currency, and 19 percent in local currency at BRR2.1 billion.
A total of 1.04 million metric tons of poultry products have been shipped by Brazil for the first 3 months of the year, an increase of 12 percent over the same period in 2015. The value was BRR5.8 billion (up 26.8 percent over last year) andUS$1.491 billion (up 6.3 percent).
“The balance shipped in March was the second largest ever recorded in the history of the industry, and allowed us to achieve growth in foreign exchange earnings,” said Ricardo Santin, ABPA vice president for the poultry sector. “One of the highlights was China, both for birds and for pigs, following an increase in the number of plants authorized for export to that country from last year. Other markets that increased purchases included Japan, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Russia.”
