Brazil pig meat exports fall in April

Russia has once again become the main export market for Brazil’s pig meat exporters, accounting for 29.15 percent of the total sold overseas during April, but overall the month proved difficult, with exports down by 6.3 percent in volume and 13.89 percent by value, according to the Brazilian association of pig meat producers and exporters, ABIPECS.
The increase in sales to Russia was the result of four processing plants being approved to export. Yet problems with the Russian market for Brazil are far from over, and sales between January and April were 55.59 percent lower by volume in comparison with the same period in 2011, said ABIPECS.
April saw Brazil export 47,734 tons of pig meat with a value of US$125.22 million. While there may have been some advances in the Russian market, this was not the case with Argentina, which introduced restrictions on Brazilian pig meat exports in February. “Everything has gone back to square one," said Pedro de Camargo Neto, ABIPECS president. "Permits for the import of product are granted in dribs and drabs, and we don’t even know the criteria used to grant them. We have to emphasize that it is the obligation of the federal government to enforce the Treaty of Asuncion that created Mercosul…the Argentinean government appears to be getting what it wants.”