Cobb-Vantress wants to produce the chicken of tomorrow in Brazil

In the first week of the year, the schedule of Jairo Arenazio, Director-General of the Cobb-Vantress in Brazil are bidding. That's because the company, one of the subsidiaries of u.s.-based Tyson Foods, is putting into practice its new strategic plan, which should yield a 40% increase in exports of matrices produced in Brazil. "Our focus is investing in genetic improvement and higher quality of the arrays, with this, we will produce the chicken of tomorrow", says Arenazi.
What the Executive Branch calls future chicken is an animal that is produced with the highest genetics developed, where they are required and selected about 50 features on each animal. Among them are the ability to ingest the least amount of feed, greater weight gain, the shortest time for the slaughter and meat yield. "With this we managed to reduce about 6% of the costs of production and the consumer has a better quality meat at the table," he says.
Therefore, the company has two laboratories for genetic improvement, in the United States and the Netherlands, where a year are invested $ 25 million in research and development. From there comes out the genetics of birds in Brazil.
The Cobb-Vantress arrived in the country in 1995 and since then has expanded its participation in the Brazilian market. Overall, the company is the biggest supplier of birds (arrays) for the production of chickens, selling 23 million birds a year and 10% of the world's poultry genetics. Here, the company accounts for 75% of the breeding market.
The company does not slaughter or creation of chickens for processing refrigerator, focuses only on the development of females who will provide his genetic heirs — where the chickens. According to Arenazio, 80% of chickens slaughtered in the BRF, have the genetics produced by Cobb.
Of the company's Brazilian facilities leave arrays for Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Argentina and Ecuador, countries where, according to Arenazio, the demand for chicken has been growing. In addition, the Brazilian unit is preparing to export to China, South Africa and Russia. Last year, the company doubled the volume of exported from Brazil, reaching 2.5 million birds shipped. "We want to make South America one of our major markets within the group," explains Arenazi.
To this end, the company is investing about $ 20 million in the construction of a new complex for birds in Minas Gerais. There, the Cobb already holds another complex, with nursery of eggs and a heated barn for building of birds. The company also keeps producing units in the State of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. But the company's focus this year is not in expanding sales, but in adding more value to their products, with the research that has been developing.
Arenazio explains that the economic downturn in Europe and high impacted commodity chain. "There was an impact on performance of refrigerators and reflected in our work."
According to him, the high prices of corn and soybeans, used in food matrices, feed increased by 18% to the cost of production, which was passed on to companies who in turn show have rearranged the price in gondolas. "I believe that in the next two years the prices will remain high," he says.
On the other hand, consumption is growing. Data from the Brazilian poultry Union (Ubabef) pointed out that the per capita consumption of chicken in Brazil jumped 29.9 pounds in 2000 to 47.3 pounds in 2011. The domestic market accounts for 60% of the demand.