São Paulo – Beef exports from Brazil are set to end the year of 2020 at a new record high in volume and revenue, the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABIEC) forecasts.
The organization forecasts that the volumes shipped from January to December will reach 2.02 million tonnes, up 8.8% from a year ago. Revenues should reach USD8.53 billion by the end of the year, up 11.8% year on year.
“The figures met our estimates from the last year and are a testament of the quality of the Brazilian beef and the trust foreign buyers put on our product,” said ABIEC chairman Antonio Jorge Camardelli (pictured above) during a press conference on Friday (18).
Year to date through November, 1.8 million tonnes were shipped, up 9% period on period, fetching USD7.76 billion, up 13.9%. In November, exports reached 196,000 tonnes, up 9.7% from a year ago, fetching USD884.3 million, up 4%.
Based on the positive results recorded in 2020, ABIEC’s estimates for 2021 are conservative. There’re still some uncertainties regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume exported is expected to increase by 6% next year, to 2.14 million tonnes, while revenue is forecast to grow 3%, to USD8.78 billion.
Top destinations
The good results were mainly driven by the climbing demand from China, which ended the year as the main destination of Brazilian beef, accounting for 42.3% of the country’s exports. The top markets in descending order are China, Hong Kong, Egypt, the European Union, Chile, Russia, United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Philippines.
Year to date through November, Egypt purchased 6.63% from the Brazil’s beef exports, while Saudi Arabia imported 2.07%, and the UAE 2.05%. Brazil exports beef to 155 countries.
According to Camardelli, the Arab market is still important to Brazil, despite the decrease in exports. “Ten years from now on one in three people will be Muslim, which assures us that this will be a perpetual market,” he says. He pointed out Brazil is a major player in the halal beef market.
As for the shipments to Egypt, ABIEC’s chairman said that the country went through some financial trouble this year. “And we have a very significant change in halal health certification, and costs for Brazil and the US skyrocketed,” said Camardelli.
As for Saudi Arabia, he said brazil also face some bureaucratic trouble this year. “They required an analysis protocol of some analytes different from the one Brazil offers, the National Residue Control Plan, which is the Brazilian security flagship. Therefore, we had to adapt by giving new credentials to slaughterhouses,” he said. He added that the country changed the slaughter and halal certification procedure, which reflected on declining shipments.
As for the UAE, Camardelli said the decline in exports is explained by the decrease in sales to Iran, as the beef goes to the UAE and then re-exported via truck to the Persian country.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
