June's good performance contributed to the sector finishing the first half with exports 13.86 per cent higher than that achieved in the first six months of 2015.

In total, 2.266 million tons have been shipped so far this year, reaching 276,000 tons more in the previous year.

"Again China was one of the highlights of the month, with exports volume 72 per cent higher than in June last year. Other Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan also performed well, offsetting the slower pace of exports to the Middle East, which showed a slight decrease due to the period of Ramadan," said the chief executive of ABPA, Francisco Turra.

For pork, Brazil's June exports were 31.4 per cent higher than the same period last year, with exports in the first half of 2016 55.5 per cent higher than 2015.

"Exports of fresh pork to China exceeded 12,000 tons in June. With this number, the market was the second largest importer of the product in the month, surpassing Hong Kong and approaching the levels of export volumes to Russia," said the vice president of markets, Ricardo Santin.