More Brazilian poultry, pork to be exported to China

Brazilian poultry meat and pork exports have been growing year-on-year, even before the latest deals — valued at an estimated US$440 million — for increased trade to China.

(cbies | Shutterstock.com)
(cbies | Shutterstock.com)

Brazilian poultry meat and pork exports have been growing year-on-year, even before the latest trade agreements — valued at an estimated US$440 million — for increased trade to China.

Working together with the Brazilian Agency for the promotion of Exports and Investments (Apex-Brasil) at the SIAL China food industry event in Shanghai last week, members of the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) agreed to export deals with China worth US$148.7 million over just three days — and possibly up to US$442 million for the whole event.

ABPA says “hundreds of commercial contacts” were signed by nine of its members in the Brazilian delegation, including Alibem, BRF, Castrolanda, Coasul, Integra - GtFoods, Rivelli, São Salvador Alimentos, Seara, and Vibra.

The executive director of the association, Ricardo Santin, expressed his satisfaction with this outcome.

“The results of the Brazilian participation in SIAL China reflect the good momentum for the animal protein sector in the Chinese market,” he said. “We have good expectations about the actions taken during this week, which should go beyond the balance of the businesses obtained in this great fair.”

Brazil increases poultry meat exports

For the month of April, Brazil increased its exports of poultry meat by 35 percent compared with last year, reports ABPA. The volume traded was up to just under 390,000 metric tons (mt), at a value of almost US$564 million, which represented an increase of 17 percent year-on-year.

Accounting for almost 12 percent of the volume of poultry meat exported was China (39,000mt), followed by Saudi Arabia (37,700 mt), Japan (34,600 mt), and United Arab Emirates (34,100 mt).

The volume of poultry meat exported by Brazil for the first four months of 2019 was up 0.8 percent year-on-year at 1.278 million metric tons (mmt). The value of those sales — US$2.107 billion — was 1.1 percent higher than those for the same period of 2018.

The same four countries ranked as top destinations for Brazilian poultry meat for the period January-April 2019 as for the month of April. Other nations/regions importing at least 30,000 mt of fresh and frozen product from Brazil over those months were South Africa, the European Union, Hong Kong, Yemen, and South Korea.

Significant rise in Brazilian pig meat exports

Although lower in volume than for poultry meat, Brazilian exports of pork (all products, fresh and frozen) showed a higher rate of growth year-on-year at 44 percent for the month of April. According to ABPA, the volume reached 58,100 mt, generating revenue of US$119.7 million — an increase of almost 27 percent from the same month of 2018.

Leading the ranking of top destinations for Brazilian pork were China and Hong Kong, which together imported more than half of the total, or 29,700 mt.

For the first four months of 2019, Brazil exported 215,700mt pork, which represents a rise of over 10 percent from the same period of last year. At just over US$418 million, the revenue from those sales was up 2.2 percent year-on-year.

As for April, China and Hong Kong were easily the main markets taking Brazilian pork during the four-month period (96,500 mt), followed by Russia (21,500 mt), Uruguay (14,200 mt), Chile (13,400 mt), Argentina (11,500 mt), Singapore (11,400 mt), Angola (11,100 mt), Georgia (6,300 mt), and Vietnam (3,400 mt).

Chinese pork production has been hit by devastating losses from African swine fever (ASF) since August of 2018.

View our continuing coverage of the African swine fever outbreak.

Page 1 of 1575
Next Page