Brazil positive on pork
According to the Brazilian Association of Producers and Exporters of Industrial Pork (ABIPECS), Brazil exported 581,477 tons of pork, worth US$1.49bn, in 2012. This represents an increase of 12.6% in volume and 4.21% in value compared to 2011 figures.
ABIPECS president Pedro de Camargo Neto said it was unlikely exports would see huge volume growth in the year ahead, perhaps only matching last year’s growth, but that prices would be higher on average due to a recovery in international pork prices and increased access to markets that were willing to pay more for Brazilian pork.
Although Brazilian farmers are still facing high input costs, de Camargo Neto pointed out that competitors in foreign markets were also suffering and had adjusted production and raised prices as a result. He added that the exchange rate on the real was looking more favourable for exports than last year.
Focus for the year will be on increasing exports to mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as increasing sales to Russia. ABIPECS said it believed the remaining Russian embargoes against Brazilian pork would be resolved during a meeting between Brazil’s agriculture and defence secretary Enio Marques Pereira and the director of Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert in Berlin this week.
De Camargo Neto said that progress had also been made towards exporting to Japan. “We believe it will be possible to complete authorisation to sell to Japan in the first quarter,” he said. “The technical issues have been resolved and all that remains is to finalise the paperwork, which suffered a slight delay with the change of government in Japan,” he said.
Agriculture growth
Brazil achieved record agricultural exports in 2012, according to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC). A total of US$95.81bn-worth of agricultural products were exported, up 1% on the previous year.
Live animal exports helped drive this growth, increasing by 30.7%, from US$492m to US$643m. Record beef export values were also recorded, increasing 7.39% in 2012 to reach US$395.4m.
