In Mexico, Bachoco is the main poultry company. Based in Celaya, Guanajuato, its history begins as a family business in 1952 in Sonora, in northwest Mexico. In 1994, it established a board of directors and by 1997 it began to be publicly traded. By 2011, Bachoco crossed the border to the north and acquired O.K. Foods, in Arkansas, United States.
Its CEO, Mr. Rodolfo Ramos, already in the position for 9 years, is a person who has been able to keep the company financially sound. Only a few days ago, Bachoco announced its results for the past quarter and year-to-date 2019, with increases in sales and the profits of shares.
Bachoco, like many others, is a multi-protein company. It produces broilers and eggs, and market pork, beef and turkey products. It even ventured into shrimp production some time ago, if I remember correctly. However, its focus is definitely on poultry.
According to the WATTAgNet Top Companies Database, it is the No. 1 chicken producer in Mexico with 622 million birds in 2018 and the second in egg production, with 12.2 million layers in production. In Latin America, it stands in third place in chicken and second in eggs. It is the only poultry company in the region on both lists. There are other examples of both proteins in Latin America, such as Pronaca in Ecuador, or San Fernando in Peru, Melo and Toledano in Panama, La Estrella in Nicaragua, La Caridad in Venezuela and Pipasa (Cargill) in Costa Rica, but those companies did not make it to the top 10.
This is very similar when reviewing the lists in Poultry International of the world's top poultry companies, which is also published in Industria Avícola in December. Bachoco and Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, are the only two companies that appear in the top-25 largest poultry companies in the world in both categories. CP Group ranks 6th with 685 million broilers and 4th with 22 million layers. Both figures include all worldwide operations. Bachoco holds the 9th and 13th positions, respectively, only with figures from Mexico.
Despite having so many multi-protein companies, I find it interesting that within the poultry industry, there are only two large ones that appear in both listings. Why is it that overall, chicken and eggs are produced by different companies?
What do you think?
