BRF S.A., the world’s largest poultry exporter, plans to expand production outside Brazil to 20 percent of its total output within three years, the company’s global CEO Pedro Faria said recently in a conference call with analysts and investors and reported by Meatingplace.
BRF S.A., a Brazilian food company, was created from the 2009 merger of Perdigão and Sadia. BRF is the world’s tenth-largest food company and Brazil’s second in revenue, after global giant JBS. Sadia and Perdigão are BRF’s main brands.
When asked about acquisitions, CEO Pedro Faria said the company is interested in expanding in Latin America. “We see (taking) the same path (that we have) taken in the Middle East, with a faster pace in Latin America,” Faria said.
BRF opened a factory in Abu Dhabi in November 2014. In the Middle East, the company also announced in October that it signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire part of Qatar National Import and Export’s frozen food distribution business. In Argentina, the company has just completed the acquisition of seven processed food brands from Argentinian group Molinos Rio de la Plata S.A.
Faria said the timing is right for accelerating growth to establish BRF’s presence in Latin America, so that the company is well positioned in the market once the economies of Brazil and neighboring countries improve. He believes the global processed meat industry is going through an intense process of consolidation, and in three to five years, there will be only three to four global players in the sector.
Currently, BRF has 35 industrial plants in Brazil and nine overseas, six in Argentina, one in the United Kingdom, one in the Netherlands and one in the United Arab Emirates. This week the company also announced the opening of its 36th plant in Brazil.
BRF registered a 53.3-percent increase in net income for the third quarter, to R$877 million (US$228 million), compared with the same quarter last year, helped by revenue increases from sales in Brazil and abroad.
