Chinese demand for corn worries chicken producers in Brazil
Brazilian chicken producers are apprehensive about China’s demand for Brazilian corn.
The grain is fundamental for feeding this type of breeding, which takes place in confinement.
Today, Brazil’s chicken producers are the largest global exporters – and the sector is growing, driven by the availability of corn in the country and the expertise of local farmers.
In 2022, Brazilian farmers produced around 115 million tonnes of corn, with two of every three bags going to the domestic market.
This volume contributed, for example, to the national animal feed production.
Last year, adding up the products destined for all kinds of breeding and with different raw materials, the national production hit 82 million tonnes.
This amount corresponded to about 7% of the global supply.
Thus, the country was in third place in the global production ranking.
Unlike what may occur in 2023, however, Chinese importers did not compete for corn from Brazil for most of 2022.
Shipments of this grain destined for China began in October.
In three months, the Asian giant absorbed more than 1 million tonnes of corn from Brazil.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine pressures the demand. Before the conflict, Ukrainian farmers were among the largest suppliers of corn to China.
A LOGISTICAL BOTTLENECK IN BRAZIL
José Antônio Ribas Júnior, president of the Syndicate of Meat Industries and Derivatives in the State of Santa Catarina, argues that exporting fresh grains adds less to the national economy than the consumption in the farms.
“The account is very simple, exporting a commodity, such as grain, generates less return to the country than transforming it into animal protein,” he explained.
He reminds us that “the value-added chain” built in the fattening of animals creates jobs, wealth, and development.
Ribas, however, is against government intervention to curb exports.
For him, the best way is to encourage the domestic industry by solving the sector’s logistical bottlenecks to better connect Brazil’s poultry producers, mostly in the South, with the farmers who grow corn, mostly located in the Midwest.
With information from Revista Oeste
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