Agricultural production
Chicken slaughter in Q1 is the biggest ever in the survey's time series
June 10, 2020 09h00 AM | Last Updated: June 11, 2020 12h59 PM
The slaughter of chicken in the 1st quarter of 2020 totaled 1.51 billion head, a new record in the time series started in 1987. This result was 5.0% above the same period last year and 2.8% higher than the 4th quarter of 2019. The month with the highest result in the quarter was March, with a significant difference in relation to March 2019: 12.8% more. The data are from the Livestock Production Statistics, released today (10) by the IBGE. Of note is the fact that the survey reflects only 15 days of the effects of social isolation against Covid-19.
A total 17 of the 25 Federation Units with chicken-slaughter establishments that underwent sanitary inspection recorded increases accounting for an increase in the number of chicken head (72.44 million) against Q1 2019. Paraná, which holds more than one-third (33.5%) of the national output, also recorded the biggest increase, 38.31 million head.
The slaughter of hogs and pigs reached 11.88 million head, a record figure in a Q1 since the beginning of the time series in 1997. The result was 5.2% above the same period in 2019 and 0.2% below the previous quarter. The same was true for chickens, since March had the biggest activity against all months: 9.6% above the March 2019 figure. Santa Catarina, a state accounting for 28.3% of the total national output, recorded an increase of 352.09 million head against Q1 2019.
Exports to China
The foreign market was one of the factors that have stimulated the increase of slaughter of chickens and hogs and pigs. There was a record of meat exports in a Q1, considering hogs and pigs. The quarter was also the second best in the series regarding chickens, following the performance of Q1 2017. “China has significantly increased its participation in our exports of the three types of protein. As the country is now facing an outbreak of African swine fever, Brazilian meat is an option to complement their domestic production ”, Bernardo Viscardi, manager of the survey, explains.
Cattle slaughter falls by 10.2% and reaches lowest level
The result of cattle slaughter in Q1, 7.25 million head, was the lowest since 2012, and stayed 10.2% below that in the previous quarter and 8.5% below that in Q1 2019. The reduction of slaughter by 672,49 thousand head of cattle against Q1 2019 was pushed by Goiás (-157.68 thousand head) and Mato Grosso (-120.70 thousand head). “Many factors may have accounted for such a decrease, for example, domestic consumption or even price changes. A difference worth of mention is that, due to the better prices of calves, meat producers have decided to spare females from slaughter so as to increase cattle breeding. That reduced the number of females slaughtered against that in Q1 2019”, Mr. Viscardi adds.
The acquisition of raw milk was a record for a Q1, with 6,30 billion liters, an increase of 1.8% against Q1 2019. January was the best month in terms of volume: 2.23 billion liters of milk. The milk sector has a cyclical behavior; there was a decrease of output in relation to the last quarter in the previous year. This quarter, the cycle was repeated: the difference was -5.5%.
