Brazil benefits during tough poultry times

The US maize price increase of the last few weeks could cost the industry US$12bn worldwide, which will in turn be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. For the time being, however, avian flu has benefited Brazil´s poultry meat industry, dismissing estimates from the Brazilian association of poultry meat exporters, ABEF, that 2007 will see a repeat of the 2005 export of 2.6 million mt as pessimistic.

The poultry industry in countries affected badly by avian flu, such as Egypt, will take at least a year to recover after the disease has been eradicated. Gordon Butland, president of Thai-based Global Poultry Strategies says he does not anticipate prices returning to their levels of 2005, however, but will certainly be improved on 2006 levels.

Butland added that Sadia´s 2006 profits demonstrated the solidity of the large Brazilian companies. Virtually all other companies in the industry would be hard pressed to match Sadia´s performance. Even without avian flu, the years in which 500-800 000 mt more poultry meat were exported each year by Brazil, have come to an end and will probably never happen again.