This substantial increase was largely driven by increased access to the strong Chinese market, where negligible 2015 shipments have been replaced by volumes just shy of 70,000 tonnes this year.

Similarly, trade with Hong Kong also made significant gains of 44 per cent on the same period last year. Smaller players equally played a role, with shipments to fellow South American destinations Chile and Argentina more than doubling on the first nine months of 2015.

In contrast, exports to Russia, which still account for over a third of volume traded, have shown a less substantial increase during 2016 so far. While volume was up 4 per cent overall to the end of September this year, a decrease of 14 per cent was actually seen during Q3. It is worth noting, however, that volumes remain well above those seen before the imposition of the Russian import ban on pork from the EU, US and Canada in 2014.

Export value did not keep pace with the rise in volume, though it was still up 21 per cent for the first nine months of 2016 relative to the same period last year, reaching R$3.4 billion. However during the third quarter, value showed a marginal decline of 1 per cent.

Increases in value were limited due to the average unit price of Russian shipments declining by 25 per cent in reals this year, to the end of September, with discounts seen across all cuts. On top of this, Russia also imported an increasing proportion of cheaper whole/half carcases instead of cuts of pork.

These changes have likely been necessitated by the stagnating Russian economy. An overall loss of value was avoided due to increases in unit prices shipped to other countries, with China showing a significant 17 per cent rise during the period.