December 20, 2010

Brazil's Q3 cattle slaughter climb 2.6% on-year

Brazil has slaughtered a total of 7.394 million cattle head in the third quarter, 2.6% more over the same period last year, the Brazilian Census Bureau (IBGE) said Friday (Dec 17).

Compared with the three previous months, however, cattle slaughters fell 2.5% in the third quarter.

The IBGE also said that 1.283 billion chickens were slaughtered in July through September, 1.3% more than a year before and also 3.8% more than in the second quarter this year.

Egg production was up 4% on the year and rose 1.8% compared with the second quarter, totalling 622.499 million dozens, with the Southeast accounting for more than half of the total.

The number of hogs slaughtered in the third quarter stood at 8.308 million, up 2.5% versus a year before and 2.9% more than in April through June.

Meanwhile, the volume of milk bought by dairy and food companies in the third quarter, at 5.191 billion litres, increased 6% on the year and was also 5.7% bigger than in the second quarter.