January 12, 2018
Brazil pork exports 'face uncertainty' as Russia builds up production
Brazilian pork exports face uncertainty in the longer term as its largest pork market, Russia, along with China, is trying to increase its own pork production, according to AHDB Pork.
Last year, Russia took 43% of Brazilian pork exports. Since 2012, Russia's share of the Brazilian export market has grown from 25%, partly due to Russia's widely reported ban of pork from many other countries.
Also, since 2012, China's share of Brazilian pork exports has increased from 1% in 2012 to 8% in 2017, peaking at 14% in 2016. This has led to China jumping up to become Brazil's third-largest export market for pork.
However, the pork division of the UK Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board said that with Russia, and to an extent China, dominating Brazilian pork exports, there may be some uncertainty surrounding Brazilian pork trade in the longer term.
"Both of these countries have ambitions to grow their own domestic pork production over the next few years, which is likely to reduce overall requirements for imported product", AHDB Pork said.
It added that Brazil's exports to other countries have recorded only slight changes over the last 10 years, and that entering new markets has proved somewhat difficult. "Therefore, domestic demand will likely need to pick up, if exports do slow".
Over the past 10 years, Brazil has increased its pork production from around 3 million tonnes per annum (carcass weight equivalent) to over 3.75 million tonnes in 2017. The lion's share of production is consumed domestically, and up until 2015 around 400,000-500,000 tonnes of fresh/frozen pork was exported annually. This increased to 629,000 tonnes in 2016 and was 593,000 tonnes in 2017.
