Asian demands to boost Brazil’s chicken production by 5%

Brazil’s Animal Protein Association (ABPA) predicts chicken production will rise by 5% and export volumes by 8% in 2019 compared to the previous year, due to the swine flu outbreak in China. Brazil shipped a total of 4.1m tons of chicken in 2018, generating about US$6.571bn in revenues.

According to the President of ABPA, the production shortage due to the swine flu in China is critical to boosting Brazil’s chicken exports to the country. Although China’s pork appetite has not waned due to the outbreak, many pork eaters are now being forced to switch to chicken. As a result, China is looking for outside sources to meet domestic demand, giving Brazil an open window to increase shipments of both commodities to the Asian country.

However, the president of Brazil’s meat packer BRF, believes China will not grant approval to further Brazilian meat plants until the Asian country reaches a deal with the United States, irrespective of the current swine flu situation.

The European Union’s ban on Brazilian chicken in 2018 combined with China’s import tariff on chicken in 2017 cut Brazil’s chicken exports by as much as 5.1% last year. As a result, Brazilian chicken production was cut by 1.7% to 12.82m tons in 2018, year-on-year.

Last February, China decided to withdraw 14 Brazilian chicken companies from anti-dumping duties following months-long negotiations between the two countries, according to DatamarNews. BRF and JBS are included in the list of firms.

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