Aurora invests and accelerates pace of expansion

Best known for acting on the market of pork, the Central Cooperative Aurora Foods intends to expand its participation in the chicken segment in the next few years, said the Center's President, Mario Valoro Lanznaster. The evaluation Manager is that, unlike the export of pork-I never deslancham-, there's plenty of room to meet the growing demand for chicken, especially abroad.
"The chicken market is very dynamic and will grow. If the Aurora is not candidate, gets left behind, "said Lanznaster, who spoke to the value yesterday, after participating in debate at the international exhibition of poultry and swine (Siavs), in São Paulo.
To walk this path, the dawn will need to expand the current ability to slaughter of chickens, which probably will occur until 2020 with the construction of a new refrigerator. The goal is to raise the daily slaughter of 1 million to 1.5 million birds heads in five years-still far of BRF and JBS, which take 7 million and 5 million birds, respectively. The Aurora also designs double its revenue until 2020, to $ 15 billion. This year, it is expected earn $ 7.4 billion.
Still no decision on building a new refrigerator, investment that has to be approved by 13 cooperatives associated with the Aurora, but Lanznaster argues that the plant is in a region closer to the production of corn, which is not the case of Santa Catarina, where the plant has most of its operations. Among the options, he cites Paraná, Mato Grosso and Goiás. "You have to be closer to where there's raw material. We have a very high cost of corn [in Santa Catarina], "he said.
According to him, there are no more great opportunities to purchase chicken slaughterhouses in the country. The best assets, he said, were purchased by JBS Foods over the past two years. In the first half, the Aurora made a purchase. In a deal of $ 250 million, as the Valorjá had informed, Aurora assumed debts of Cocari, of Mandaguari (PR), and stayed with the slaughterhouse that the cooperative had in the same city. In the agreement, the Cocari also became one of the associates of Aurora.
Lanznaster also advocates focus on chicken meat because there are limitations on advancement in pigs, sector responsible for 51% of revenues of the Aurora. According to him, the per capita consumption of pork slowly grows in Brazil and in foreign markets, it is not easy to compete with u.s. and European Union.
Although planning for the greater focus on chicken, the Aurora also has invested in pigs. Next Saturday, the central opens the expansion, begun in April 2014, his pig unit in São Gabriel do Oeste (MS), which required injections of R $ 121 million.
In the view of the Chairman, the path to selling chicken meat is less devious. "The pig is hard, but sell chicken is better than taking child cracker," quipped Lanzsnaster, citing the Aurora itself. Currently, only 16% of pork produced by Aurora is exported. In the case of the chicken business that is gaining strength in the cooperative in this decade, exports account for about 50% of production.
In addition to the expansion of operations of chicken, the cooperative also study double milk production until 2020. Today, the Aurora processing 1.5 million liters of milk per day in a unit in Western Santa Catarina Vargeão dome and a plant of a partner in Pinhalzinho (SC). Dairy sales account for 13% of revenue.
Lanznaster admitted that the investment in the case of dairy products, should be the result of pressure from members, since the profitability of the segment is not as high. "It's not very promising, but it is to meet the need of the producer," he explained, citing the growth of milk production in the State.