The survey includes all products (whole chicken, cuts, salted meats, processed and embedded). In all, 3.186 million tonnes have been shipped so far this year.

The result was also positive in revenue, totalling 17.3 billion Brazilian Real (R) - 26.6 per cent more than the balance achieved between January and September last year. In dollars, a fall in revenue of 9.1 per cent was recorded, reaching $5.4 billion.

Considering only September, there was a decrease of 0.3 per cent in volumes shipped by chicken meat exporters compared to the same month in 2014, totalling 366,800 tons.

"The slight drop in September was a direct impact of the strike of agricultural federal tax inspectors, which began to have an impact on chicken meat exporters already from the first day of the strike, lasting for 10 working days in the month.

"We had been at an increasing rate since June and would probably be registering new highs in September, if the shipments had not been harmed," said the chief executive of ABPA, Francisco Turra.

"Despite the decline in shipments resulting from the strike, most markets kept the same levels of purchases, which supports the projections of ABPA a surplus in exports for 2015," said Ricardo Santin, vice president for poultry for ABPA.