China will increase imports of Brazilian chicken, pork

Chinese authorities are on track to authorize one more pork plant and seven more poultry plants from Brazil to export their products into China.
The Office of Agribusiness International Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture informed the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) on the emergency animal health mission Chinese authorities, organized by the Brazilian government to visit processing plants.
As explained by ABPA CEO Francisco Turra, the action aims to accelerate the evaluation of new plants for exporting poultry meat and pork destined for the Chinese market. The inspection mission, which will include representatives of the Certification and Authorization Administration of China (CNCA), will be conducted in June.
ABPA Poultry Vice President Ricardo Santin participated in a series of meetings with the Chinese authorities in order to speed up the authorization of seven more new export chicken meat plants already inspected, which will add up to the 29 plants that today are already authorized.
"The Brazilian government's expectation is that the announcement of the authorization of exports of these 8 poultry and pork plants will be made before the meeting of the COSBAN (Sino-Brazilian High Level Commission), scheduled for later this month," Turra said.
Between January and May, 114,000 metric tons of chicken meat was shipped from Brazil to the Chinese market, a volume 26.7 percent higher compared to the same period last year. Comparing May 2014 with May 2015, growth is even higher, at 38 percent, with 24,900 tons shipped in the fifth month this year. In the general balance of the year, China ranks among the three countries that have boosted their purchases of poultry meat from Brazil. Of the total exported by Brazilian companies in the first five months of 2015, 7.3 percent was sent to the Chinese market.
"Enabling the eight new plants (seven of poultry and one of pork) was one of the promises made during the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, in mid-May. With these, plus the possibility of authorizing further plants through this animal health mission, we have great expectations as to an even greater flow of animal protein shipments from Brazil to China," said Turra.