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SA cuts Brazil chicken

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While the Middle East is one of the few parts of the world that have increased purchases of chicken from Brazil this year, exports to Africa was down after South Africa – the biggest importer on the continent – introduced antidumping measures. This means that prices of imported products face a surcharge if brought into the country. According to the market director at the Brazilian Poultry Union (Ubabef), this was mainly responsible for the reduction in shipments throughout the year in Africa.

However, the Middle Eastern region is the main importer of chicken and, apart from it, only the Americas increased their imports in 2013, according to a balance sheet disclosed on Wednesday. The countries of the Middle East imported 1.094 million tons of chicken from January to September, growth of 7.3 percent in volume as against the same period in 2012. To the Americas, sales totaled 190,100 tons and had growth of 23.2 percent.

In the year, the country shipped 815,200 tons to Asia, 5.3 percent less than in the same period in 2012. To Africa, the third main client, sales in the year totaled 389,100 tons and dropped 14.9 percent. To the European Union, shipments totaled 302,800 tons of chicken and are 10.2 percent down from September 2012, and to the Europeans, sales totaled 71,000 tons, or 22.5 percent less than from January to September last year.

In the accumulated result for the year, chicken shipments totaled 2.865 million tons, 2 percent less than in the same period in 2012. In values, however, revenues are greater: up to now, sales of chicken generated $5.989 billion, growth of 6.7 percent over the revenues obtained up to September last year. Ubabef market director Ricardo Santin said the performance of exports to the Middle East is the result of the Brazilian product’s strong reputation among clients in the region.

“We have a long-lasting trade partnership with them. Brazil has been supplying the demand in the Middle East for several years and is now the main chicken supplier to the region,” he said, recalling, however, that there is great competition among European Union producers and the markets in the Middle East.

According to Santin, of the 1.094 million tons exported by Brazil to the Middle East in the period, 509,000 went to Saudi Arabia, the main client in the region. The United Arab Emirates imported 189,000 tons, Kuwait, 92,000, Iraq, 64,000 and Yemen, 55,800 tons. In Asia, the reduction is due to bureaucratic jams faced by Brazilian exporters selling to China and, in the European Union, the lower sales are a result of the economic crisis.

In September, exports were lower both in volume and in value, as against the same period in 2012. Last month, poultry farms exported 302,000 tons of beef, or 1.2 percent less than in September 2012. Revenues with these shipments totaled $578.3 million, or 8.6 percent less than in the same month in 2012. SG/VOC


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