The organisation has estimated that this year’s show will deliver $1.2bn worth of food business, the lion’s share of which (70% - or $840m) will come from meat deals.
Meat businesses formed a core part of the 3,000m2 dedicated to Brazil at Sial this year, with about 40 leading companies specialising in beef, chicken and pork exhibiting.
According to the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA), 17 of its members alone will scoop $350m over the next year from their participation in Sial.
Charm offensive
Brazil launched a major charm offensive aimed at wooing international export markets, particularly stressing the sustainable credentials of its agrifood sector. It aims to build on raised awareness in the wake of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Since 1997, Brazil had increased agribusiness production five-fold, while the area of land dedicated to that role had actually decreased, Roberto Jaguaribe, president of Apex-Brasil, told GlobalMeatNews. That flies in the face of historical criticism of the country for destroying indigenous rainforests to make way for food production.
Brazil meat facts
- The EU banned most Brazilian fresh and frozen beef imports in 2008, amid concerns about Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks
- 20% of Brazil’s exports consist of beef, chicken or pork
- Apex-Brasil claims Brazil’s beef is produced to high animal welfare and environmental standards, boasting an average of 1.25 head of cattle a hectare
- Annual poultry production: 13m tonnes
- Brazil claims to be the second largest poultry meat producer in the world
- Brazil claims to be the fourth largest pork producer in the world, producing 3.5m tonnes annually. Of this, 555,000t are exported to 70 countries
“Brazil suffers from distorted views, which are beneficial to a number of people, but not to us,” Jaguaribe said.
In addition, Jaguaribe pointed to figures from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs indicating Brazil’s greenhouse gas emission levels for poultry production were 45% lower than the UK’s and 50% lower than France’s.
Asia
He said Asia would be an important future export market for Brazil. “Meat is going to grow enormously in demand in Asia – an estimated additional 4,000t a year until 2040. I have no doubt Brazil is in the number one position to supply this demand.”
Brazil was working hard to add value to production, he added. “We are working on many aspects, including beef and chicken. Chicken products are very specialised and we are very bullish about the role we have.”
“50 years ago we were mainly an importing country,” commented Jaguaribe after the show concluded.
'Revolution'
“The technological and agricultural revolution we’ve experienced enabled us to completely reverse the trend and become the number three world exporter in agribusiness. Sial is one of the best places to promote our assets.”
Brazil claims to have exported 3.4m tonnes of poultry meat to more than 160 countries in the nine months to September 2016, an increase of 6.1% on the same period last year.
Poultry meat export revenue fell by 3.6% in the same period, from $5.4m to $5.2m, although they grew by 9.1% in September, compared with September 2015.
Poultry meat exports
“At this rate we forecast that poultry meat exports shall reach 4.5m tonnes by the end of the year,” said Ricardo Santin, ABPA markets vice president.
Francisco Turra, executive president of ABPA, said: “Prices experienced a slight recovery this year, partly because of the increases in production costs, which has a significant effect on reducing the competitiveness of those exports.”
ABPA calculated that 4,000 people visited the Brazilian pork and poultry space during the five days Sial was running.