Economy

Commodity Shuttle: Livestock lives on records, but informality grows in 2021

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The meat sector experienced a record period last year, with strong external demand, high domestic prices and production above 2020 in several segments.

Pressure on prices, however, pushed part of livestock production into informality. This is what the data from this Tuesday (15) from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) show.

The production of pork and chicken had a strong evolution, but exports grew more intensely in the year, which shows that the pressure of demand came mainly from the external sector.

The supply of beef, due to the restriction of animals for slaughter, fell by 5.3% in the period. Domestic prices of the arroba, with an average increase of 35% in the year, compared to 2020, led consumers to more affordable proteins.

The egg, whose record production reached 3.98 billion dozen in 2021, was one of them. With a drop in purchasing power, the consumer increased the share of this protein in the daily menu.

In cattle breeding, the rise in the price of calves made it part of the ranchers to reduce the supply of cows for slaughter, in order to guarantee a greater number of breeding females.

According to the IBGE, there were only 9.1 million last year, the lowest number since 2004. The total number of animals slaughtered dropped to 27.5 million heads, a decline of 7.8%.

The volume of swine carcasses rose to a record 4.9 million tons, up 9.1% over 2020. Exports, however, increased by 12.7%.

Chicken meat production reached a record 14.6 million tons, up 6%. Although domestic consumption has grown, according to ABPA (Brazilian Association of Animal Protein), exports had an even more pronounced pace, registering growth of 7.8% in the year, according to Secex (Secretariat of Foreign Trade).

The milk producer, on the other hand, due to the increase in production costs and the drop in the consumption of derivatives by consumers, cut production by 2.2% in 2021. The IBGE recorded a capture of 25.1 billion liters.

With cattle raising heated up and prices compensating, informality grew in the sector. That’s what the leather data show.

Last year, the country slaughtered 27.5 million head of cattle under some form of sanitary inspection service. In the same period, however, 29.3 million hides were purchased by tanneries.

According to this data from the IBGE, the number of hides processed by the industries surpassed by 6.4% the number of animals slaughtered under inspection, a percentage that is double what occurred in 2020.

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