Brazilian chicken processors defend green credentials
Brazil’s chicken processors and exporters have held their first presentation in Europe as they continue a charm offensive designed to tackle negative perceptions.
Brazil’s poultry firms have been accused by environmentalists of destroying parts of the Amazon rainforest to clear ground for cultivating soya feed for birds. But at a meeting in Paris, Christian Lohbauer, executive director of the Brazilian Chicken Producers and Exporters Association, denied Brazil’s poultry firms were responsible for the destruction.
“The destruction of the Amazon rainforest has nothing to do with chicken producers,” said Lohbauer. “Soya production is concentrated in the south of the country and has nothing to do with the rainforest, which is located in the north. We have initiated conversations with the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace to share data with them, then they can decide what’s right.”
Referring to the development of Brazil’s chicken export industry, he said exports to the UK totalled 50,000t in 2007, 10% of its total exports, with frozen chicken breast being the most popular product. Exports to Europe in the same year totalled 560,000t. Lohbauer said he saw little prospect of this proportion growing substantially in the medium term, partly because he did not think EU tariffs on the imports would be dropped.
He saw some potential for Brazilian processed turkey exports to the UK, but this was a small part of Brazil’s poultry export business, he said.
Most of the opportunities for growth of Brazil’s poultry exports existed in South Africa, the Middle East and China, where demand was rocketing, he said.
Lohbauer said Brazil’s chicken exporters and processors were going through a period of consolidation. However, he played down the idea of them establishing a UK base, saying the focus of their attention was Germany and Holland.
