Brazil pork exports up 10.5% over 2022
Lower input costs, rising prices boost farm profits
8 January 2024
2 minute read
By: After facing a long period of losses, Brazil's swine sector started to recover in 2023, favoured by lower production costs and record pork shipments, according to a recent market report from CEPEA.
Increased production in 2022/23 was the result of boosts in both area and productivity, aided by lower costs for inputs, including soybean meal and corn. These factors combined help boost profits and the purchasing power of Brazilian producers.
A relaxation in corn prices allowed swine farmers to buy 6.33 kilos of corn by selling one kilo of the animal on the average of 2023, 32.1% more than in 2022 and the biggest since 2020, according to CEPEA calculations.
Producers were able to purchase 2.81 kilos of soybean meal by selling one kilo of live pig, 8.2% above the result verified last year.
Increased purchasing power is also related to rising prices for live pigs. Quotations moved up in real terms in 2023 in all regions surveyed by CEPEA. In the southwest Paraná, for instance, live pig values rose 13.6% from 2022 to 2023, averaging BRL 6.61/kg this year.
Concerning pork meat, slaughterhouses claimed to have difficulties to transfer price rises of the live pig to the meat, due to the low liquidity in the domestic market in most part of the year. From 2022 to 2023, special carcass prices dropped 0.6%, averaging BRL 10.08/kg.
As for exports, 1.1 million tons of in natura and processed pork meat were shipped from January to November this year, 10.5% more than in the same period of 2022, according to Secex. It is worth noting that the sector exported more than 100 thousand tons for seven months in a row in 2023, which has never been observed in the Secex series. Therefore, the record registered in 2021, of 1.12 million tons, may be surpassed.
