MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina on track to become world’s fourth largest producer of poultry meat

Minister Giorgi said Argentine exports reached 600.000 tons in 2011

Industry Minister Debora Giorgi said that Argentina is on track to become, in the short term, the fourth largest producer of poultry meat. According to the Industrial Strategic Plan 2020, the sector achieved in less than a decade exports of 600.000 tons per year.

From 2003 to present, poultry production tripled, doubled the level of per capita consumption and export became tenfold, from 65 to 650 million dollars. Today, Argentina is the ninth largest producer of poultry meat, producing 1.6 million tons.

“We are on track to be within a few years, the fourth largest producer of poultry meat,” said Giorgi.

She also emphasised that Argentina “is the sixth largest exporter of poultry meat and sells to over 60 countries”, for one. So far this year it already exported 356.000 tons, 100.000 of which were destined to Venezuela.

In 1970 it took 2.8 kilos of balanced food for a kilo of chicken and 75 days for a broiler chicken of 2,500 kg. In 2010, two kilos of food was required to do the same balanced kilo of chicken and 46 days for a broiler chicken of 2,760 kilos.

Since the incorporation of technology in the production chain, for 2017 producers are going to need 1.7 kilos of food and 38 days for a broiler chicken of 2,800 kilos, according to the data mentioned by Minister Giorgi.

The forum on Argentina’s Poultry Industry Strategic Plan 2020 agreed to reach a consumption of poultry meat in the country of 50 kilos per capita per year, producing 3.1 million tons (91% more than in 2010), generating 50.000 jobs to achieve the 200.000 workers in the sector and export 600.000 tons per year.

Every ton of corn and soybeans exported by Argentina means an average income of 620 dollars. In the poultry sector that same ton processed into chicken can generate foreign exchange for 2.300 and 2.900 if it is exported as bucking chicken cooked.

Argentina registered a steady growth since 2003, going from 300 million head of poultry slaughtered, compared with over 700 million in 2011, while consumption of poultry meat in the period 2003-2011 increased from 18 to 39.5 kg per capita. (Argentine Beef Packers SA).