São Paulo – The main market for Brasil Foods (BRF), the owner of brands Sadia and Perdigão, is still the Middle East. According to a balance sheet disclosed by the company last week, "significant growth was reached" in distribution in the region in 2010.
BRF exports generated 9.2 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 5.5 billion) last year, growth of 4.3% in comparison with 2009. According to a company press statement, the Middle East answered to 31.9% of revenues abroad.
In an interview to newspaper Folha de S. Paulo published on Sunday (27), the co-president of the board at the company, Luiz Fernando Furlan, former minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, said that the business with the Arab world "remains normal" despite turmoil in the region in recent months.
And he went further, adding that the opening of a factory in the Middle East" is among the company’s "priority projects". The idea is not new, having been released by Sadia much before the merger Perdigão, but it ended up being put on hold when the international financial crisis broke out and Sadia had enormous losses with operations in derivatives, which resulted in the creation of BRF. It is worth recalling that in the past, both companies were rivals.
Sadia had even decided that the factory would be installed in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. To newspaper Folha, however, Furlan said that, despite the company having a piece of land in the Emirates, the site of the plant has not yet been defined. He pointed out that there have been talks in Saudi Arabia and that the company is also evaluating possible acquisitions.
The Middle East is an important market not just for BRF, but for the whole of the Brazilian poultry sector. Last year, exports of chicken to the region generated US$ 2.233 billion, growth of 13% over 2009, according to figures disclosed by the Brazilian Poultry Union (Ubabef). This performance has maintained the region as the main destination for sector products.
*Translated by Mark Ament
