Chicken market suffers new setback with Saudi veto at Brazilian slaughterhouses | Globo Rural

Brazil is the largest chicken exporter in the world and Saudi Arabia, the biggest buyer: 14% of everything the country sells there, about 550,000 tons. Last year, the amount exceeded $ 800 million.

Across the country, 30 meat packers exported chicken meat to the Saudi market. This week, five people were disabled. This group represents 37% of exports to the Arab country.

Since October of last year, there is a discomfort between Brazil and the Arab world. At the time, the presidential candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, had announced his intention to move the Israeli embbady from the country of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which displeases the Muslims. But until now, no one has yet confirmed if that was the reason for the accreditation of refrigerators.

A Saudi mission was in Brazil in October and visited refrigerators, aviaries and feed mills. The deactivated institutions will have 30 days to present an action plan with the suggested adaptations and to attempt a new export accreditation with the Saudi government.

The president of the Brazilian Association of Animal Proteins (ABPA), Francisco Turra, does not believe in commercial retaliation. For him, the intention of the Arabs is to reduce the volume of imports and protectionist barriers could be at the origin of the suspension. "It sounds incredible, but they invest heavily in poultry construction and want to have a minimum of food security because they do not eat pork," he says.

"We think it is a protection of the local market."