Steady exports

RENDERING Steady exports

Brazil is a major global renderer, processing around 12M tonnes/year of animal by-products

Brazil is one of the world’s four largest producers of rendered products and the country’s animal rendering industry removes around 12M tonnes of animal origin by-products from the environment every year, according to the Brazilian Animal Recycling Association (ABRA).

“If this material was not recycled, it would represent a huge sanitary and environmental risk. However, by using modern technologies, it can be cleanly and safely recycled into fats, calcium, phosphorus and proteins, making a decisive contribution to the sustainability of the meat product production chain,” the ABRA says on its website.

Brazil’s rendering industry is divided into two groups; one associated with the slaughterhouses or rendering plants, and the other made up of independent operators. In 2010, there were 512 firms operating in the rendering industry comprised of 343 rendering plants and 169 independent operations.

According to ABRA technical manager Lucas Cypriano, rendering in Brazil is distinct from other countries, primarily regarding the origin of raw material used in the production of animal protein meals and fats. Renderers can only process by-products from meat processing slaughterhouses, meat packers and retail stores (such as butchers, supermarkets, and municipal markets).

When poultry/swine depopulation was necessary after slaughterhouse closures due to COVID-19, the material could not be collected or rendered.

“Therefore, the source of rendered by-products is strictly related to livestock numbers,” he said in the August 2020 issue of Render magazine.

Forecast for 2020

The ABRA has forecast that the Brazilian rendering industry may experience a change in raw material availability as beef slaughter in the first quarter of 2020 was 9.1% lower than the same period in 2019.

“In the opposite direction, poultry and swine slaughter grew 3.5% and 4.2% respectively in first quarter 2020 in relation to the same period in 2019,” Cypriano reported in Render. “For renderers, total by-product availability dropped, since beef represents about two-thirds of all raw material rendered.”

Rendering itself had not experienced major COVID-19 impacts since the industry was recognised as an essential service by Brazil’s federal government.

“There has been no interruption in the supply chain nor were rendering operations suspended due to the new pandemic. All international export audits booked for 2020, however, have been suspended. In the case of previously approved plants, ABRA was able to postpone the expiration date and, in some cases, like Colombia, documental approval was officially agreed upon. In other instances, the relaxation of importing permits is under negotiation,” he added.

According to Cypriano, the latest figures

Volume (metric tonnes)

Revenue (thousand US$) Source: Render magazine for Brazilian rendered product exports – US$57M from January to July 2020 – are at the same level as in 2019 (see Figure 1).

In 2019, the main Brazilian markets for rendered products were animal feed, biofuel, hygiene and cleaning and pet food, with 57% of total meal and fat production driven to animal feed.

These markets were supplied with 5.5M tonnes of meals and fats, from around 13M tonnes of animal by-products.

The main destination for animal fat was biodiesel, with nearly 41% of the national fat production used in biofuels last year.

Cypriano said in Render that the rendering industry in Brazil grew about 5.2% in by-product processing in 2019 from 2018, absorbed by the 315 rendering companies in the country.

Growth was also seen in the export market. In the last year, Brazil exported around 117,000 tonnes of rendered products to nearly 60 countries, according to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade. This was likely due to the country’s sanitary safety and guarantees of the products.

In Brazil, the rendering industry must implement standard operating procedures, good manufacturing practices, sanitation standard operating procedures, hazard analysis and critical control points, traceability, and be audited by veterinary health authorities.

“As a result, a surplus of US$61.8M was observed in the trade balance of rendered products in 2019.”

Brazil primarily exports protein meals (92.7%), with poultry meals (poultry byproduct and hydrolysed feather meal) being the largest share (73.5%).

Cypriano said that for 2020, the Brazilian rendering industry had been focusing on two key strategic actions: • Official recognition of Brazilian renderers as a ‘circular economy’ industry under Brazilian laws, which would benefit industries with a possible new tax framework • Increase in exports of beef meals, the main Brazilian by-product. 

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