São Paulo – Brazilian associations of beef, poultry and pork exporters will work to open up new markets. The goal is to boost exports of these meats by a million tonnes. Last year, 5.652 million tonnes were shipped from Brazil, i.e. the additional volume will represent a 17.7% increase in shipped volume.
The target was set this week at a meeting between the chairmen of the Brazilian Poultry Union (Ubabef), Francisco Turra, and of the Brazilian Meat Exporting Industries Association (Abiec), Antônio Camardelli, the director of the Brazilian Pork Producers and Exporters Association (Abipecs), Jurandi Soares, the executive secretary of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Ricardo Schaefer, the international relations director to the Secretariat for Foreign Trade (Secex), Marcio Lima, and the chairman of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), Maurício Borges.
“The target was proposed by the secretary [Ricardo Schaefer]. There is no deadline for it, but the target is feasible in terms of entering markets which are now closed off to us,” explains Ricardo Santin, the Markets director for Ubabef, who also attended the meeting held at the organization’s headquarters in Paulo.
Santin says the number of additional tonnes to be exported for each type of meat was not set, but that the poultry industry’s target for this year is shipping 4 million tonnes abroad. Last year, poultry exports from Brazil stood at 3.891 million tonnes.
The Ubabef Markets director notes that the industry’s goals include entering markets such as Indonesia and Malaysia, which buy halal chicken just like the Arab countries, and beginning to sell to India, which does not import Brazilian poultry, even though said imports are allowed by the local government.
Regarding Arab countries, Santin explains that since most of the Middle East countries already buy Brazilian chicken, the goal in the region is to increase the competitiveness of Brazilian product. “We want to work on our sales profile by selling more value-added products. The Middle East ranks among our best clients. We will carry out actions to strengthen and improve our competitive edge,” he says.
According to Santin, the meeting this week was the first step towards increasing meat exports. “Each of the associations will outline their priorities to the government and then we will devise joint actions. This is a tandem effort from the meats industry and the government, in order to boost exports, “he explains.
During the World Cup in Brazil, Apex will promote two export-oriented actions: the Buyer Project, for bringing importers to Brazil, and the Image Project, for bringing journalists. “We are going to portray an image of Brazil that is not only about soccer, but also of quality and sustainability,” said Santin.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
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