São Paulo – Brazil wants to more forward in goat and sheep husbandry, and go from importer to exporter in the sector. Segment sales generate a turnover of US$ 11 billion per year, especially sheep husbandry products, such as wool and meat. The Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, and the Brazilian Sheep Farmers Association (Arco), which have just issued the Foreign Market Survey of Products Derived from Sheep and Goat Husbandry, want a bigger slice of this cake.
"Brazil is losing an opportunity to develop its sheep and goat production chain and occupy the huge amount of underused grazing land in the country," said the vice president of Arco, Arnaldo dos Santos Vieira Filho. According to him, the Brazilian sheep and goat herd comprises 26 million heads, and a significant share of it goes to the subsistence of families, most of which live in the Northeast of the country. "We will have to virtually double our production in order to meet the foreign demand, because we have a large domestic market."
To the vice president of Arco, the best opportunities in the segment are in Europe, the United States, Mexico and the Middle East. "Many Arab importers have knocked on our door, but unfortunately we are still unable to meet such a strong demand," said Vieira Filho. According to information supplied by the national coordinator for Goat and Sheep of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), Ênio Queijada, and published by Agência Sebrae, Brazil still has a long way to go when it comes to exports.
The coordinator also said, however, that the foreign market offers windows of opportunity. “In the case of sales of live animals, once we overcome sanitary and technical barriers, the obstacles will be smaller, and it may be an interesting option," Queijada told Agência Sebrae.
The survey of the Ministry and the Arco was commissioned by the Sectorial Chamber of the Sheep and Goat Production of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, and was carried out from June to November last year. Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), of the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (Comtrade), of the European Commission, and of the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE), among other organizations, were taken into consideration.
Presently, the world’s leading sheep exporting countries are New Zealand and Australia. According to the survey, Brazil must look up to them, and to Uruguay, in order to develop its foreign meat sales. The global sheep herd declined by approximately 8% over the last 20 years, but meat production increased by 27% during the period. The goat herd, on the other hand, increased by roughly 40% during the same period.
*With information from Agência Sebrae. Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
