Brazil produced a record 26 million tons of beef, pork and chicken in 2022, up 4 percent year on year, according to survey data released by the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). According to the Secretariat for Foreign Trade (Secex), the share of overseas markets also increased slightly, from 27% in 2021 to 28%.

On the export front, the average price of beef exports rose 12 percent last year to 317 reais per Aroba (15 kg), according to the Brazilian Center for Advanced Studies in Applied Economics (Cepea), Folha de Sao Paulo reported on March 15. The average price per ton of Brazilian beef exports rose 16 percent last year in dollar terms.

Among these three meat products, chicken has the largest export volume, the highest output and the largest share of the export market, with 34% of chicken products sold overseas in 2022. The average price of chicken in export markets rose 22 per cent last year, according to Secex. Average prices in the domestic market rose 5.4 per cent, according to Cepea.

Brazil accelerated pork exports to China in 2020 and 2021 due to the African swine fever incident. That changed in 2022, when pork exports to China fell 14 percent. But because Brazil also supplies pork products to places like the Philippines and Thailand, overseas sales of natural pork remained stable last year. In terms of prices, the average price of pork exports fell 2.6% last year, and the average price in Brazil's domestic market fell 17% in the first half of the year before recovering in the second half.

The IBGE also explains why milk prices have soared in Brazil. Milk production recorded by Brazil's federal, state or municipal authorities fell by 1 billion litres in 2022 to 23.85 billion litres, 1.8 billion litres less than in 2020. The decline in milk production is mainly due to dry weather in local pastures and reduced investment in the industry, which will eventually be reflected in the final price of the product.