Marina Sarruf*
São Paulo – The opening of the Egyptian market to chicken imports is motivating Brazilian companies to negotiate with local industries, increasing exports to the Arab country. “There is significant agility and much talent on the side of Brazilian companies. This is so true that we started exporting in just one month (after the opening of the market)”, stated the president at the Brazilian Poultry Exporters Association (Abef), Ricardo Gonçalves. In July, the government of Egypt liberated imports for a period of six months to avoid lack of supply.
According to Gonçalves, Brazil may export between 10,000 and 20,000 tonnes of chicken a month to Egypt. From August to mid September, shipment has totalled at least 21,530 tonnes of the product. “We have never managed to do anything as fast as we did now,” he said. To Gonçalves, the Arab country is a potential market for Brazilian companies.
“Everybody is being motivated as it is a new market, which brings opportunities,” stated Gonçalves. According to him, Brazil has chances to continue exporting to Egypt even after the period of six months determined by the local government. “Businessmen are reacting well to the new market,” he said.
From January to August this year, the Middle East was the second greatest market for Brazilian chicken. Shipment to the region totalled 449,640 tonnes in the first eight months of the year, generating revenues of US$ 472.8 million. The largest market for Brazil up to August was Asia, which imported 498,920 tonnes. Imports to the region totalled US$ 604.67 million. In third place came Europe, with imports of 355,000 tonnes and revenues of US$ 556.2 million.
Positive August
Brazilian shipments of chicken last month totalled 299,150 tonnes, which represented an increase of 12.7% when compared to August 2005. Foreign sales totalled US$ 339.34 million, 0.42% over the total registered in the same period last year. According to Gonçalves, August was the best month of the year for Brazilian exports of the product and the Middle East played an important part in this performance.
Brazilian shipments to the region totalled 85,780 tonnes of the product last month, which represented an increase of 155% when compared to the month of July this year. Sales totalled US$ 80.88 million in August, a performance 168% greater than the result in July 2006. To Gonçalves, one of the reasons for this growth is Ramadan, the religious period that goes from September 22 to October 21 this year and involves fasting during the day, but is followed by feasts at night, in which the Muslims eat more than usual.
In the first eight months of this year there has been a reduction of 8.13% in the volume and 7.75% in the value of Brazilian exports of chicken when compared to the period from January to August last year. Shipments totalled 1.72 million tonnes and exports US$ 2 billion. According to Gonçalves, this reduction also reflects the cases of avian flu in Asia, Europe and Africa early this year.
*Translated by Mark Ament
