Poultry USA - August 2008

TABLE 2: TURKEY SLAUGHTER RANKING
Slaughter-thousand head
Companies Plants 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Sadia 3 19,289 19,005 23,130 24,198 22,538 Perdigão 2 5,046 5,344 6,480 7,686 7,830 Doux-Frangosul 1 2,253 4,404 5,340 5,028 5,283 TotalSlaughter - 26,587 28,753 34,951 36,912 35,651 Annual Increase - 8% 22% 6% -3%

Source: UBA (Brazilian Poultry Industry Association) 2008

Each of Brazil’s big three turkey producers would rank among the top 10 turkey producers in the U.S. in terms of slaughter volume.

2007 23,270 11,867

5,284 40,421

13%

meat-based dishes to their menus.

Global turkey meat trade has increased dramatically since 1970, when just 18,206 MT were traded. In 2007, world turkey meat exports reached 554,000 MT. Only four turkey exporting countries/regions are worth noting: the U.S., Brazil, EU and Canada. Brazil’s market share jumped from 7.86 percent of the global exports, in 2000, to 29.4 percent, in 2007, a

growth of 272 percent (Graph 1). In the same period, the U.S. increased its market share by 25.62 percent; the EU, the former leading exporting block, reduced its participation by almost 55 percent, reducing from 44.29 percent to 19.86 percent, respectively.

The majority of the Brazilian turkey meat exports head to the EU, the second largest world importer, and most of this goes to Germany and

Spain. Mexico is the world’s largest importer of turkey meat. Brazilian poultry products, including turkey meat, are not allowed to be imported into North America, because of the current sanitary restrictions imposed on Brazilian products by the NAFTA guidelines.