Brazil Livestock and Products Annual 2007

By USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service - This article provides the pork industry data from the USDA FAS Livestock and Products Annual 2007 report for Brazil. A link to the full report is also provided. The full report includes all the tabular data which we have omitted from this article.

4 October 2007

5 minute read

Report Highlights:

Post forecasts beef and pork production to increase in 2008, mostly driven by firm domestic demand and a continued increase in exports. Profit margins for both cattle and hogs are currently under recovery and are expected to continue improving next year. Record corn and soybean crops should keep feed prices at reasonable levels and improve the profit margins of producers. However, meat packers are concerned about the efficiency of the animal health programs and threats from the European Union to ban Brazilian beef imports. Packers are also concerned about the current strike of government meat inspection officials and the delays on beef and pork shipments during the last months of the 2007. Other animal health agreements with China, Russia, Mexico and Korea have not yet produced concrete results.

Commodity Outlook, Hogs and Pork

Production

Pork production is forecast to increase by nearly 4 percent to 3 million metric tons in 2008, primarily due to continued higher pork exports combined with firm domestic demand. Most of this production increase will continue to come from the Center-West region, where production costs are estimated to be lower than in the South. Post also revised 2007 pork production slightly higher due to stronger domestic and export demand.

Consumption

Pork consumption in 2008 is forecast to remain firm, although at a lower rate of growth than in 2007 due to higher competition from beef and broilers. The increase in domestic pork consumption is due to stronger market promotion conducted jointly by producers and packers to increase per capita domestic consumption of fresh pork in Brazil. Promotional activities for pork are concentrated in the supermarkets, mostly in the Center-South of the country.

Pork utilization in Brazil is estimated at 70 percent industrial/processing and 30 percent fresh consumption. A promotional campaign to increase fresh pork consumption, which started in the south, has expanded to other major cities in the southeast. Pork producers remain concerned about the seasonal trend of fresh pork consumption in Brazil that is concentrated during the winter months (June-August), and are trying to address this concern with their campaign to promote the benefits of pork consumption year-round. Pork producers also are trying to close the gap between the regions of Brazil in terms of pork consumption. Currently, per capita pork consumption is concentrated in the South with per capita consumption at 18 kilograms and the Southeast at 15 kilograms, while the Center-West (11 kilograms) and Northeast (6 kilograms) regions consume less pork.

Trade

Pork exports are projected to increase by eight percent in 2008. According to trade sources, although pork exports are still too concentrated in the Russian market, exports to other nontraditional markets are projected to increase next year, mostly in Asia, because of increased market access and promotional programs. Pork analysts are not taking into consideration possible exports of pork to Mexico, because government negotiations are not completed and may take longer than expected. Recently, pork exports to Hong Kong have increased significantly due to the outbreak of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (blue-ear disease) in China.

Marketing

In addition to the domestic campaign to increase consumption of fresh pork, Brazilian pork exporters initiated a marketing program in 2002 to expand overseas sales of pork. The program is half financed by the Brazilian Pork Processors and Exporters Association (ABIPECS) and the other half by the Federal Government Export Promotion Agency (APEX), under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Foreign Trade (MDIC). ABIPECS renewed its agreement with APEX for US$ 3.2 million for market promotion activities during 2007/08, of which APEX will fund 50 percent.

Market promotion programs developed by ABIPECS include: trade servicing, participation in trade shows (principally FOODEX Japan, HOFEX Hong Kong, World Food Moscow, SIAL, and ANUGA Germany), display and sampling of products, sales catalogs in foreign languages, trade missions, reverse trade missions, and publicity.

Target overseas markets include: Asia, East European countries, the European Union, and other countries in Latin America. Since Russia became the largest importer of Brazilian pork, ABIPECS has been targeting Russian retailers in their promotional efforts to avoid the high cost of doing business in Russia through European trading companies.

Policy

There are no major changes in policies for pork production and exports. Brazilian packers remain eligible for all production and export financing programs listed in GAIN 5622.