Cattle slaughter in Brazil falls 8.5% in 2020 after three years of high, says IBGE

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The slaughter of cattle in Brazil fell 8.5% in 2020, compared to the previous year, after three years of expansion, pointed out the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in a survey released on Thursday, March 18th.

The institute counted 29.7 million heads slaughtered under federal, state or municipal health inspection services last year.

This decrease takes place in the middle of a boom in beef prices in Brazil observed since mid-2020, which reached record values. With this, according to IBGE, producers have been holding back the slaughter of reproductive cows because of the increase in value of the animals.

From this, the result of 2020 returned to the level observed in 2016, when 29.7 million head were slaughtered, while in 2019 the number reached 32.4 million.

The only month of 2020 with an increase compared to 2019 was June, with 68.6 thousand head more than in the same month of the previous year, while the most intense drop was seen in April (less 382.6 thousand head), added the IBGE.

In the fourth quarter of last year, 7.3 million head of cattle were slaughtered, a drop of 9.6% compared to the same period of 2019, which meant the worst fourth quarter since 2010, the institute highlighted. In addition, the result is 5.5% lower than the 3rd quarter of 2020.

In state terms, 24 of the 27 units of the federation showed a drop. The most significant were registered in Mato Grosso (-573.6 thousand heads), Mato Grosso do Sul (-346.1 thousand heads), Bahia (-237.2 thousand heads) and Goiás (-220.3 thousand heads).

The only state with more than 1% of bovine slaughter to show an increase in 2020 was Santa Catarina (+59.5 thousand heads).

Even with the biggest decrease, Mato Grosso continued to lead the ranking of bovine slaughtering, with 17.1% of the national participation, followed by Mato Grosso do Sul (10.9%) and São Paulo (10.5%), pointed out the IBGE.

The reduction in slaughtering, however, did not harm Brazilian exports, which reached unprecedented levels in 2020, with the devaluation of the Real making the product more competitive, the IBGE noted.

Chickens and pigs on the rise

The chicken and pork slaughtering, on the other hand, followed an upward trend and reached historical highs, said the IBGE.

Among swine, whose slaughtering has been growing since 2005, last year’s level was a record 49.3 million heads, a leap of 6.4% on an annual basis. In the fourth quarter, there were 12.50 million, an increase of 4.9% compared to the previous year.

The fact that pork is an alternative to beef in the domestic market contributed to the result, according to the survey.

The chicken slaughtering grew 3.3%, to 6 billion heads, a new record in the historical series, according to IBGE. There were 1.6 billion heads in the fourth quarter, an increase of 5.6% and also a record for all quarters.

Source: IBGE