Once again, we present our exclusive listing of the top poultry companies in Latin America.
After a difficult year for the poultry industry worldwide, characterized by the repercussions of the pandemic’s uncertainties, high raw material costs and inflation and avian flu outbreaks, amongst others, numbers suggest a rather cheerless outlook.
We will publish our full country rankings for broiler and layer producers in a future edition of Poultry International, but everything indicates that Latin American broiler and egg production was broadly flat last year, or even decreased.
2019 saw most companies recording healthy growth, but 2020 saw companies record no, or at best marginal, expansion. For 2021 the situation would appear to be at best stagnant, and perhaps even negative.
Many companies have asked us to report the same numbers for the latest edition as we published for 2020, which may suggest that their performance may not have been as strong as hoped.
In many cases, where in previous years we had a response to our requests for data, this time there was no response at all. In these cases, we have decided to reprint 2020’s numbers.
The two largest companies in the region, the Brazilian giants BRF and JBS, have been rather quiet in reporting broiler numbers. By the time we finished this year’s research, no new figures for broiler production had been published.
Generally for broiler production, stagnation would appear to be the case in most of the companies in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Peru, the largest producers in the region.
Where egg production is concerned, the same situation has been observed.
Venezuelan companies were the only exception, where some growth has been reported. However, as has been stated before, Venezuelan statistics should be viewed with caution.
Latin America’s broiler top 10
The first five companies in the top 10 broiler companies’ ranking are dominated by Brazil, with JBS, BRF, Aurora, and Lar Agroindustrial, and Mexico, with Bachoco.
The first three positions have been held by JBS, BRF and Bachoco for several years, however, this year only Bachoco reported updated output. Our BRF estimate is much closer to the figures reported by the company in 2016-2019 than the total reported for 2020.
These five leading companies, together, process 5.6 billion broilers- accounting for 84% of all the broilers processed by the top ten Latin American companies. The remaining five companies produce 1.1 billion birds across 10 countries.
The big surprise in this latest top 10 ranking is Brazil’s Lar Agroindustrial which has jumped to fifth position after having previously been ranked at number 10. The change in position is largely due to its acquisition of fellow Brazilian company Agrodanieli, but also due to stagnation or production decreases across the other leading companies.
Lar Agroindustrial is not the only mover in this year’s top 10. Peru’s San Fernando falls from fifth to seventh position, while the Guatemalan multinational CMI Alimentos rises from eighth to seventh position. Brazil’s Copacol has fallen from seventh to ninth position while the Argentinian Grupo Tres falls one place to number 10.
In addition to the significant production increase reported by CMI Alimentos, which saw output rise by 16.8%, one other top 10 company also reported a notable increase in production. Cargill Protein Alimentos, headquartered in Honduras, saw output rise by 7.2%.
Mexico’s Bachoco, reported only a rather meager increase of 1.1% in its output for 2021. Nevertheless, it remains the leader in its home country and the third largest poultry producer in Latin America.
Latin America’s large chicken producing companies typically operate across numerous countries. JBS, for example, in addition to its home market, also produces in Mexico under the brand name Pilgrim’s Pride, while Cargill Protein Latin America has operations in Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Colombia. Alimentos CMI has operations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica.
Latin America’s layer top 10
In contrast to their peers in the broiler industry, the region’s top 10 egg-producing companies are focused solely on their home markets and do not have foreign subsidiaries.
These 10 leading companies currently have 124.5 million laying hens in production, a 0.8% decrease. However, they are still thought to account for a quarter of the total Latin American layer flock.
The list of top 10 egg companies has been dominated by Mexico – home to five of the 10 leading companies – for several years. Proan continues to be the region’s largest egg producer and the second largest egg producer in the world. Despite this leading position, it reported no growth last year.
The top three egg producers are still three Mexican companies – Proan, Bachoco and Empresas Guadalupe – accounting for over 48% of the top ten’s combined layer flock with 60.5 million laying hens.
While the position of individual companies in the ranking may have remained the same, this does not mean that change has not occurred. Previously, eight companies had in excess of 10 million birds. This has now fallen to seven companies.
Mexico’s Proan saw its layer flock remain stable, while fellow Mexican Bachoco, the only company to appear within the top 10 for both broilers and layers, saw its flock decline by 0.5 million birds.
Also declining was Brazil’s Granja Faria, with 1 million fewer birds reported. The remainder of the top 10, from Brazil, Colombia and Peru, reported no change, but there was one exception to these stagnant or declining flock numbers. Mexico’s Epresas Guadalupe bucked the trend with its layer flock increasing by 1 million birds.
See all of the tables and access the links in the April 2022 issue of Poultry International.
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