According to sector results disclosed on Thursday (21 November) by the Brazilian Poultry Union (Ubabef), the region is still Brazil’s main chicken importer. From January to October, the countries of the region bought 1.213 million tonnes, which result in revenues of US$ 2.505 billion.

According to Brazil-Arab News Agency, in total, chicken exports from January to October this year totalled 3.22 million tonnes, or 1.4 per cent less than in the same period in 2012. Revenues with shipments are on the rise: up to October, revenues obtained with exports of beef and chicken totalled US$ 6.671 billion, 5.3 per cent over the total for 2012.

Last month alone, the opposite happened, shipments rose but revenues dropped. Exports totalled 355,400 tonnes, a record for the month and 3.5 per cent more than in October 2012, but revenues were US$ 681.22 million, or 5.1 per cent less than in October 2012.

In a press statement, the Ubabef informed that after the Middle East, Asia was the Brazil’s second main importer of chicken up to October, with purchases that totalled 922,000 tonnes. Then came Africa, the European Union, America and the European countries that are not members of the EU.

According to the Ubabef, sector shipments as a whole, including poultry and eggs, totalling 3.374 million tonnes, a reduction of almost 2.1 per cent in comparison with the period from January to October 2012. Revenues with sales totalled US$ 7.16 billion and are already 4.2 per cent greater. The figures also include chicks, fertilized eggs and genetic material.

In the statement disclosed by Ubabef, the president at the institution, Francisco Turra, stated that the positive result for export revenues is due to two sectors: genetic material and chicken meat.

“A light recovery in the rhythm of chicken shipments in the second half resulted in a reduction in the negative export result of the first half, which was already at 5 per cent. This indicates a slightly less difficult first half of 2014. In other sectors, as is the case with eggs, sales on the domestic market were more attractive, which had an impact on exports,” said Turra.

Sales of genetic material totalled 919.4 tonnes up to October, growth of 4.7 per cent over the same period in 2012. In value, the growth reached 20.5 per cent, with revenues of US$ 43.5 million.