March 6, 2006

Brazil's Avipal to suspend operations for April

One of Brazil's largest chicken exporters, Avipal S.A., will cease operations for the entire month of April in order to lower chicken stocks, the company said Friday (Mar 3).

Stocks of frozen chicken have been accumulating in Avipal storage facilities because of a drop in worldwide demand due to the spread of bird flu in Asia, North Africa and Europe.

Avipal's two chicken-processing units, located in Mato Grosso do Sul and Rio Grande do Sul states, will reopen in May, investor relations director Francisco Marques de Avila said.

"It's just to control stocks at this point. The Middle East is our main market and they've reduced imports by 70 percent. It's all because of bird flu," Avila said. He declined to say how much chicken Avipal had in frozen storage.

The deadly H5N1 virus has not been found in the Americas, but the virus has made it as far west as Nigeria and is currently sweeping through France and Germany. The H5N1 strain has occasionally been transmitted to humans who have come in contact with infected birds or contaminated inanimate objects.

Avipal exports roughly 180,000 tonnes of fresh and frozen chicken per year.

The company processes 160,000 chickens per day, for a total of roughly 200 million annually.

Brazil is the world's largest chicken exporter by volume.