Brazilian meat exporters have called on markets such as South Africa to ease protectionist measures against poultry and other meat imports, arguing “there should be no borders for food”.
Brazilian Association for Animal Protein (ABPA) president Ricardo Santin told Business Times that his country’s meat protein sector was poised to increase its dominance in the global trade market and that policies aimed at blocking this would not benefit consumers.
“We complement the local industry, and that is why we say this protectionism is just so wrong because ... when we have excess chicken that can’t go into a market because of policies there, it can export to other markets and lower the costs there instead of competing with protection measures.”
Speaking at the Meat Protein Trade Fair in São Paulo this week, Santin took issue with restrictions on poultry imports imposed by the EU over health concerns, saying Brazil’s commercial poultry market was largely unaffected by the recent avian influenza strife.
South Africa has long battled with the influx of cheap chicken imports from Brazil, the US and other regions, prompting the government to introduce additional tariffs to protect certain categories of poultry products.
Francois Baird, founder of FairPlay — a lobby group for the local poultry sector — dismissed Santin’s claims, telling Business Times there had been serious scandals concerning the meat trade in Brazil, and the South American country should first “clean its own house” before making statements about trade that are “otherworldly”.
“Firstly, there are no borders between food exported according to the rules, regulations, and laws. So, I’m afraid that statement is, in essence, on its face, wrong. Brazil, like South Africa, belongs to the World Trade Organisation, which sets the rules for trade on all goods, including food.
“I venture to say that Brazil itself doesn’t accept food that is not sent to the country according to the rules. Secondly, would you like the free flow of food without health and safety checks and not knowing where it’s from and if it’s been checked? Would you feed your children that? This is why, on its face, this argument belongs in fantasy land.”
He said South Africa has every right and obligation to protect the health of its people and those regulations should be adhered to. Baird said most local poultry operations are located in small towns and rural areas where unemployment is high. He accused Brazil of engaging in predatory trade in South Africa.
Brazil has become the largest exporter of meat protein products globally, after strengthening ties with major markets such as China. Santin said Brazil’s meat exports did not seek to destroy the sectors in the export markets but rather worked to complement them.
Santin said their intention was not to destabilise other markets but to complement supply in countries that have meat shortages.
“We are not here to destabilise markets but to add to these markets that don’t have a high enough supply in certain categories ... Brazil has consistently increased its meat and protein exports in poultry and beef, and we are growing exports in categories like pork and fish.”
He said Brazil was in talks with Brics partner state China to allow more categories of meat protein into the Chinese market.
According to data from the Brazilian Association for Animal Protein, while South Africa took in about 309,000-million tonnes of poultry imports from Brazil in 2023, exports for January to June 2024 dropped 11.4% to 168,102mt, compared with January to June 2023 when they stood at 189,732mt.
In 2024 South Africa is still a top five export market for Brazilian chicken meat, behind China (276,175mt), United Arab Emirates (204,142mt), Japan (214,273mt) and Saudi Arabia (206.080mt).
Santin said the 11.4% decrease in the January to June 2024 figures came from the demand side, but he expressed confidence this would rebound in the remainder of the year.
Santin said while Brazil accounts for 3% of global GDP and is South America’s largest economy, it accounts only for about 1% of overall global exports.
Association of Meat Importers and Exporters of South Africa CEO Imameleng Mothebe said the association “fully agreed” with Santin’s remarks, adding that the relationship between South Africa and Brazil was crucial for food security in the country.
“Brazil is the biggest exporter of poultry meat to South Africa, 67% of all chicken, excluding mechanically deboned meat, was imported from [there] in the last 12 months, and over 95% of all imported mechanically deboned meat comes from Brazil.”
He said access to affordable protein becomes doubly urgent when the country is experiencing disease outbreaks, and 2023’s avian flu taught the country that animal diseases are not going away any time soon.
South African Poultry Association CEO Izaak Breitenbach told Business Times that since the last outbreak in November, all 9.5-million birds culled have been replaced, and slaughter numbers have stabilised at about 21.5-million birds per week. Companies have since recovered financially.
He said the association was awaiting meetings with agriculture minister John Steenhuisen and trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau as it has an agenda of items to discuss with them relating to poultry.
• The journalist was a guest of the Brazilian Association for Animal Protein.
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