Chicken consumption falls in the country

Each Brazilian consumed an average of 41.1 pounds of chicken in 2016, 4.9% reduction in comparison with the average of 42.2 pounds last year. Absent protein in the Brazilian''s table, "lamented the President of ABPA (Brazilian Association of Animal protein), Francisco Turra, in a meeting with journalists.
The decline in consumption is a reflection of the deep cut of production made by the brazilian industry to adjust the supply of chicken and thus raise prices to offset the higher cost to acquire corn-the main ingredient in animal feed.
According to the Vice President of the ABPA, Ricardo Santin, the cut made in the production was so drastic that has annulled the growth of chicken production in the first half of the year. "In some cases, companies have reduced the abates in 20%," said Santin, citing the closure of units and requests for reorganization of companies in the sector.
In this context, the brazilian chicken meat production fell 1.8% in 2016, totaling 12,900,000 tons. The number behind the production of 13,600,000 tons designed initially by the ABPA and also of the estimate that was released in July, when the cutting movement of the production had already started. At that time, the estimated fall of 1%, to 13,136,000 tonnes.
For 2017, the ABPA is more optimistic, since the biggest corn harvest should boost the industry. The projections of the entity, the production and exports of chicken meat should grow 3% to 5% next year.