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Earnings in dollars from Brazil's chicken exports rose 44.2% in 2004, finishing the year at US$ 2.595 billion. This was the result of the annual balance sheet released yesterday January 12 in São Paulo by the Brazilian Association of Chicken Producers and Exporters (Abef).
In 2003, exports came to US$ 1.799 billion . This improvement increased Brazil's advantage on the international market, in which 43% of the chicken currently sold internationally comes from Brazil.
In terms of volume, Brazilian chicken exports were up 26%. 1.959 million tons were shipped in 2003; 2.469 million, in 2004. The higher rate of growth when it comes to earnings reflects the increase in average prices, which were 6.4% higher for whole chickens and 20.1% for chicken parts. The average price increase for exported chicken was 14.5%.
Asia took over as the principal market for Brazilian exports, with a 29.9% share in terms of receipts, as against 27.0% for the Middle East, which used to be the country's largest market.
According to Abef president, Júlio Cardoso, the chief reason for this growth was the "bird flu," which affected production in Asia.
Despite a 2% increase in earnings from sales to the European Union, that continent's share of Brazil's total exports was down from 26.9% in 2003 to 18.8%.
"Thailand [Asia's biggest producer] started to export processed chicken meat to the European Union, since the 'bird flu' prevented the exportation of unprocessed meat. This caused our exports to Europe to increase less," Cardoso explains.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil
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