May 15, 2012

Brazilian pork exports declined in April for both volume and revenue sales, with sales abroad for January through April down by 3.5% in revenue and 4.8% in average price from the year prior, according to Brazil's pork exporters association, Abipecs.

Exports were down 13.9% by revenue in April compared to the same month in 2011, to US$125.21 million, and dropped 6.3% by volume, to 47,700 metric tonnes. The average pork price for April also dropped 8.1% from the year prior, to US$2,569 per tonnes.

For the year so far, only the volume of pork sold abroad has increased, rising 1.4% to 169,100 tonnes. Export revenue registered a lower than expected US$440.5 million, and the average product price for the period stood at US$2,569 per tonnes, also a reduction.

The results were labelled as "frustrating" by Abipecs President Pedro de Camargo Neto, who blamed the poor performance on trade bottlenecks, particularly with Russia and Argentina. "These are issues that remain unsolved," he said. "Russia, especially, is a market that's sorely trailing."

The embargo has been relaxed in recent months, and four pork processors are now free to export to Russia, vaulting the country to return last month as the main export market for Brazilian pork. In April, Russia accounted for 29% of volume shipped and 33.6% of pork export revenue, ahead of former leaders Ukraine and Hong Kong.