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INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Ricardo Santin


“Positive outlook for Brazilian poultry”


Just a day before ABPA CEO Ricardo Santin joined the 11th BRICS meeting in the Brazilian capital Brasilia. Poultry World met up with him in his Sao Paulo office to discuss the current situation in the Brazilian poultry industry. Optimism prevails, but recovery from both domestic and international concerns is still fragile.


BY FABIAN BROCKÖTTER F


or everyone in the highly integrated poultry production chain in Brazil, the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA) is the ‘go to’ place for the latest statistics on how the industry is doing, both at home and abroad. With


30 companies – representing more than 95% of Brazilian chicken meat exports – feeding the ABPA databases with actual produc- tion figures, the association is able to provide a clear overview of the current market conditions. Knowing in what direction the markets are moving is also imperative to the main objective of ABPA itself. The goal is to significantly increase export volumes and revenues for ABPA member companies and ABPA does this by


“There should be no borders for food”


negotiating to open up new markets, as well as maintain and grow markets which have already been accessed. The ABPA is ac- tively promoting the concept of ‘Brazilian chicken’ to the world while emphasising the high quality of Brazilian chicken meat.


What do the statistics tell you? “If we look at the consolidated data, which we have only up until 2018, over the last decade we have seen almost continuous growth in export volumes, with turnover in US dollars showing a


6 ▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 1, 2020


somewhat turbulent trend. This was mainly due to exchange rates. However, in the period 2017to 2018 we lost about 0.2 mil- lion tonnes in exports, worth about 0.7 billion dollars, this being 5% and 9% of the total export volume and turnover, respectively.”


What caused this sudden drop in demand? “We had this big misunderstanding about Salmonella which frus- trated part of our exports to the European Union. The EU halted exports of salted meat because Salmonella was found. The odd thing was that the meat was only rejected if it was exported as salted, which falls under a free tariff quota. The same meat from processors not directly involved could be exported as fresh meat if tariffs were paid. We see this as a hidden trade barrier which had nothing to do with public health concerns. Luckily only some pro- cessing plants were affected but we are planning to go the World Trade Organization to have them take a proper look at this issue. There should be no borders for food, especially on grounds that do not make any sense. We have set quotas in international trade agreements, lets abide by that and respect those agreements.”


Even though the stats aren’t very promising? “That’s true, but that’s behind us now. We are in the process of gathering the 2019 figures for the report we will be publishing early in 2020 and those figures look very promising. From January to August 2019 we saw a production increase of over 4% to meet growing demand. The first signs from the second half of 2019 tell us that growth is accelerating even faster. The Brazilian economy is slowly but surely emerging from a recession with 2.5% growth this year, which has led to extra domestic demand. At the same time we are seeing a shift in international trade flows due to Afri-


PHOTO: FABIAN BROCKÖTTER


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