Brazilian meatpacker Marfrig Global Foods SA reported on Tuesday a first-quarter net profit of 109 million reais ($21.96 million), down 61.1% year-on-year, mainly from the impact of its equity holding in BRF, reported Reuters.

"We had Marfrig's best operational first quarter... The profit was impacted by the mark-to-market investment in BRF," said the company's chief financial officer, Tang David, in a call with journalists.

In February, Marfrig, which is BRF's largest shareholder, bought 1.8 billion reais of the poultry and pork processor's stock to keep its stake of 33.27%. In March, BRF approved Marfrig's controlling shareholder Marcos Molina as the company's new chairman.

Marfrig's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled 2.75 billion reais in the quarter, a 60.9% increase from the same period of 2021.

The company's North American unit, National Beef, accounted for 87% of its total adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, with 2.3 billion reais, up 63.4% from the previous year.

"Demand from the North American market remains strong and the scenario is for price increases in the international market as well," said the chief executive of Marfrig's North American operations, Tim Klein.

Strong growth was also reported in South America, boosted by a rising demand in China, mainly for beef from Brazil. Adjusted EBITDA for the unit rose 94.9% in the period.

Last year, China temporarily suspended shipments of Brazilian meat due to two atypical cases of mad cow disease and resumed the shipments in December.

In the first three months of 2022, approximately 68% of total export revenues of Marfrig's South American operations were linked to sales to China and Hong Kong.