September 22, 2006

 

Brazil's chicken exports up 12.7 percent on-year in August

 

 

Brazil's August chicken export volume rose 12.7 percent in comparison to August 2005 to reach 299,151 tonnes, making it the first month that chicken exports surpassed 2005 volume, the Association of Chicken Producers and Exporters (ABEF) said Thursday (Sep 21).

 

Brazil's chicken exports have been soft all year on reductions in chicken consumption in countries where cases of bird flu have been reported.

 

"These numbers are surprising. We don't know if the trend will continue into September, or if this was a fluke," said Ricardo Goncalves, ABEF's president.

 

Goncalves said he still expects Brazil chicken exports to decline 9 percent on the year, with prices falling by 5 percent on average and profits falling by 14 percent on average because of bird flu's impact on the global chicken meat market.

 

January-through-August export volume is 1.7 million tonnes, down 8.1 percent from the same period last year. Revenue from the period was put just over US$2 billion, down 7.7 percent in relation to the same period in 2005.

 

However, August proved to be the best month of the year, with exports rising for whole chicken, chicken cuts and processed chicken meat. Chicken cutlet exports for the month rose 4 percent to 169,883 tonnes. Over the eight-month period, some 1.06 million tonnes of whole chickens have been shipped to world markets, down 6.3 percent in relation to the same period last year.

 

Whole chicken exports for August rose 25 percent to 115,861 tonnes. For the first eight months of the year, whole chicken exports declined 15.3 percent to 587,238 tonnes.

 

Processed, or cooked chicken meat exports rose 37 percent in August to 13,405 tonnes in comparison to August 2005. The segment has been the only growth story all year for Brazil's chicken companies, rising 47.8 percent to 76,809 tonnes between January and August 2006, ABEF said.

 

Total chicken export volume to the EU declined by 18.5 percent to 355,056 tonnes between January and August 2006 in comparison to the same period last year. The same holds for the Middle Eastern markets, with drops of 19 percent to 449,644 tonnes over the eight-month period.

 

Asian markets, including Russia, saw a slight increase of 0.6 percent to 498,923 tonnes over the eight-month period.

 

Chicken is one of Brazil's main export items. Brazil is the world's leading chicken exporter, shipping around 2.8 million tonnes of chicken to world markets in 2005.