Brazil By-product insights

On August 1st, Brazil celebrated a milestone that transformed its poultry industry into a global benchmark: the 50th anniversary of the first official shipment of chicken meat to the foreign market. The destination was Kuwait, the starting point of a trajectory that positioned the country as the world's largest exporter of the protein.

After Brazil was once again considered free of Avian Influenza, the resumption of chicken meat exports is slowly growing, keeping the domestic market with falling prices, though less steep than the previous month according to a survey by Cepea.

According to data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), Folha de S. Paulo calculated that Brazil lost approximately 123,000 tons of poultry products for export from the time of confirmed cases until the first 14 working days of June, compared to the average levels of 2024. Within 10 working days after the confirmed cases, export volumes dropped to a daily average of 14,025 tons, compared to the daily average of 20,210 tons in May of last year. During these 10 working days, Brazil exported 140,249 tons of poultry products, but if it had maintained the previous export pace, the volume could have reached 202,100 tons, a difference of 61,851 tons. In the following weeks, the impact continued: during the first 14 working days of June, Brazil exported 224,040 tons, with a daily average of 16,003 tons, lower than the 20,400 tons in June 2024, with an estimated loss of 61,560 tons. Therefore, the cumulative export losses exceeded 123,000 tons. However, the situation has begun to change. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the end of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) outbreak in Brazil's commercial poultry herds last Friday (20th). The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture reported that several countries have begun to lift import restrictions on Brazilian chicken. According to Luis Rua, director of Commercial and International Relations at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, South Korea, Iraq, Morocco, and Bolivia have announced the resumption of Brazilian chicken purchases. "Brazil has recovered several markets: Bolivia, Morocco, and Iraq," he said, "and South Korea has also reopened, which is good news. The South Korean government has agreed to permanent sanitary zoning measures. If another outbreak occurs, they will no longer block the entire country, but only the affected states." However, returning to normal transportation still faces many obstacles: 17 markets continue to impose full embargoes on Brazilian chicken, including China, the European Union, Chile, and the Philippines; other markets maintain partial restrictions, mainly targeting products from Rio Grande do Sul or areas near the outbreak.