At 485,000 metric tons (mt), September chicken meat exports by Brazil were the second highest on record.
The nation’s highest ever monthly shipments were in March of last year, when they amounted to 514,600mt, according to the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein, ABPA. Figures cover all chicken meat, both fresh and processed.
Not only did the September total represent a year-on-year increase of 22.1%, it also helped to push the year-to-date figure into positive territory.
For the first nine months of 2024, Brazil exported close to 3.92 million metric tons (mmt) of chicken meat. This total is a 0.6% improvement on the situation at the same time last year when it was just over 3.89mmt.
“The strong increase recorded in September reversed the performance recorded throughout the year, which is now positive, and indicates that it will continue to be so until December,” said ABPA president Ricardo Santin.
As well as the higher traded volume for the month, ABPA also reports an increase in the average selling price (in U.S. dollars).
Taken together, these trends combined to give a near-33% year-on-year rise in chicken meat export revenue to almost US$954 million. This figure also represents the second highest monthly revenue on record for the Brazilian chicken industry.
For the year to the end of September, total revenue for the trade was more than US$7.27 billion. This is 4% below the near-US$7.58 billion achieved at the same point in 2023.
China imported less Brazilian chicken
While the majority of leading destinations for Brazilian chicken took higher volumes in September than in the same month of 2023, China was an exception.
Continuing to take the most shipments — 55,100mt — last month, the volume was down 3.4% when compared with September of last year. However, Santin highlighted that this volume represented a return to Chinese shipments of more than 50,000mt in a month.
Other important destinations for Brazilian chicken last month were the United Arab Emirates (41,400mt), Japan (36,500mt), Saudi Arabia (29,900mt), South Africa (28,400mt), Mexico (23,800mt), the European Union (23,700mt), Ghana (16,100mt), the Philippines (15,900mt), and Kuwait (13,100mt).
Of these destinations, only the trade with the Philippines was lower than in the same month of last year — by 4.3%. Each of the other markets increased volumes imported from Brazil by between 5.9% (by Saudi Arabia) and almost 200% (by Ghana).
Brazil expands poultry genetics shipments
Not only is Brazil becoming ever more successful in terms of chicken meat exports, ABPA reports that the country also generated more revenue from shipments of day-old chicks and hatching eggs during the month of August.
In that period, revenue was up more than 12% year-on-year at US$17.6 million. This occurred despite a 7% dip in monthly shipment volume to 1,492mt.
For the year to the end of August, the nation's poultry genetics exports were 5.7% higher than at the same point in 2023 at 18,283mt. However, revenue from this trade was 6.7% lower than last year at US$151.3 million.
During the most recent month, Venezuela was the leading destination for Brazil’s exports, taking 467mt. This is more than four times its shipments during the same month of 2023, which Santin said reflects a period of expansion in the Venezuelan poultry industry.