Zanchetta Alimentos invests in chicken meat production complex

Zanchetta Alimentos will invest more than R$730m to build an area focused on chicken meat production in the city of Conchal, in the Campinas region. Recently, the company had already invested almost R$200m to acquire Mondelli, a traditional beef slaughterhouse in São Paulo.

The new industry will be able to slaughter 380,000 birds a day, which will more than double Zanchetta’s chicken production capacity. Construction will begin in October and the complex is expected to be completed by early 2020.

According to Valor, when in operation, the Conchal slaughterhouse will represent a leap in Zanchetta’s revenues, with an expectation to be among the top five in the industry – behind BRF, JBS, Aurora, and Copacol. According to the president and founder of the company, José Carlos Zanchetta, the group’s gross revenue will surely exceed R$3bn, but the goal is to reach an amount equivalent to US$1bn – more than R$4bn, considering the current dollar exchange rate.

In addition to the slaughterhouse, the investment of R$730m includes the agricultural structure – feed factory, hatcheries, poultry farms – and a factory for the production of offal and feather meal for the pet food segment. The complex is expected to generate 3,000 direct and 9,000 indirect jobs in about 50 cities.

To get the investment out of the paper, Zanchetta has the support of the São Paulo government but according to São Paulo Secretary of Economic Development Patricia Ellen da Silva, the government support will not include tax exemption. “The government does not make fiscal war,” she said.

On the other hand, there is an ongoing discussion to expedite the use of ICMS credits (granted or presumed). Because Zanchetta gets 35% of export revenue, it generates a lot of credits. “Our next job with Zanchetta is to make the Boituva unit viable to export to the Chinese market,” added Wilson Mello, president of the Paulista Investment Promotion and Competitiveness Agency (InvesteSP), which is linked to the Economic Development Secretariat. The agency recently went on a mission to China, with Zanchetta as part of this entourage.

The São Paulo government’s stimulus program includes a fast track model to obtain the necessary licenses for the project in Conchal. On another front, the government wants to make it possible to offer cheap credit to small poultry producers who will be Zanchetta’s suppliers in the future.

The group currently has about 360 integrated chicken producers in Boituva. A similar number will be needed in the Conchal region, according to Carlos Zanchetta, son of José Carlos and the company’s chief operating officer.

The following chart, based on DataLiner data, shows Brazilian chicken exports to China, the Arab Countries, and the European Union from January 2015 to July 2019:

Chart Source: DataLiner/Datamar
Article Source: Valor

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