Latin America is consolidating as a region of strong broiler production, not only because of its total production, but because it contains three of the world's top 10 broiler companies: JBS, the world’s largest producer; BRF, the third; and Bachoco, the ninth.
According to the the totals reported in WATT Global Media's World's Top Poultry Companies Database, these 10 Latin American companies produce 5.055 billion chickens, or almost three times the production of one of the largest, BRF in Brazil with 1.724 billion or Tyson Foods in the U.S. with 1.977 billion chickens a year. JBS annually produces 3.5 billion birds across all its operations.
According to the WATT database, Latin America produced a total of 11.32 billion chickens in 2016. The 10 largest companies accounted for 48.6 percent of the region’s total production.
The top two Latin American producers (BRF and Seara) produced almost 60 percent of the total produced by the top 10 regional producers. The last two (Tres Arroyos and Super Pollo) produced only 4.5 percent of the total, which shows the wide differences between the largest producers.
By country, Brazilian companies dominate regional production. This list shows the country of origin of these top 10 producers:
- Brazil (BRF, Seara, Aurora and Copacol) - 67.3 percent
- Mexico (Bachoco and Pilgrim's Pride) - 21 percent
- Peru (San Fernando) - 4.8 percent
- Colombia (Avidesa) - 2.4 percent
- Argentina (Tres Arroyos) - 2.3 percent
- Chile (Super Pollo) - 2.2 percent
Together, Brazilian and Mexican companies produce 88.3 percent of the top 10’s total and the remaining four countries produce 11.7 percent.
The internationalization of Latin American companies’ production is a common characteristic among the top 10 regional producers. BRF operates in Argentina (in addition to other countries in the world). Seara, JBS's poultry business, also owns Pilgrim's in Mexico and in the U.S. Bachoco operates in the United States – it owns O.K. Foods – but not in other Latin American countries, and finally, Tres Arroyos also owns farms in Uruguay.
In fact, broilers produced by all the Brazilian companies in the top 10, plus Tres Arroyos in Argentina and Super Pollo in Chile, reach almost 150 countries in the world including the US.
Another characteristic of these companies, which are all vertically integrated, is that many are diversified into multiple proteins. Besides chicken, these companies or their subsidiaries, produce beef, pork and eggs. Some are large food multinationals.
Learn more about the world's top broiler producers:
