The list of the 10 main importers of chicken meat in the USA in the first half of 2017 shows that there was a real “musical game” in the sector, with large importers registering a loss of position and smaller importers rising to new positions.
In fact, only one country among the 10 maintained its original position: neighboring Mexico, the USA's main importer. Which, even so, reduced its purchases by almost 10%. Canada, traditionally in second place, had its imports reduced by 5.63% and, as a result, fell to fifth place.
In fact, who is now next to Mexico, occupying the position historically belonging to Canada, is another Latin American country – Cuba, whose imports in the quarter increased by almost 50%, an index provided by the market opening sponsored by former president Obama.
But a real surprise is finding a Portuguese-speaking country in third place (a year ago, seventh). In this case, Angola, whose imports currently register an increase of 77%. Which, let's be clear, still does not correspond to the record, as the biggest increase was recorded by South Africa, whose purchases more than tripled, showing an increase of more than 200%.
The explanation for this exceptional increase lies in the reopening of the South African market to US chicken meat. It occurred at the end of last year, following threats of retaliation by the North American government and, as it turns out, it is being capitalized to the maximum by Uncle Sam's poultry industry.
By way of comparison, the table below reproduces, in the columns on the right, the representation of these importers in Brazilian chicken meat exports.
As it turns out, Brazil supplies 70% of them, but only two are among the country's top 10 importers: Hong Kong and South Africa.
As for the three American countries closest to the USA, they all remain promising for Brazilian exports. Mexico is in 20th position, Cuba in 21st and Canada in 33rd.
Source: Agrolink
