Analysis Chicken & Poultry meat
One country benefits from increased EU chicken exports
The export of European chicken meat has significantly increased in the first half of 2024 compared to the previous year. Remarkably, only one major player is benefiting from the higher exports.
In the first half of 2024, the import of European chicken meat has significantly risen. Compared to the same period the previous year, exports increased by 8.7% from roughly 900,000 tons to about 980,000 tons.
The higher export was due to a relatively tight global market. As a rule, it is unattractive for third countries to import chicken meat from the European Union. This is mainly due to the strict European rules on animal welfare and the environment, which make chicken from the European Union relatively expensive. However, this has changed due to a tight supply in the global market. Generally, prices in the European Union were lower than in the global market.
Low European prices
For example, compare the Dutch broiler price with the indicative Brazilian market for the global market, and it is noticeable that prices have been higher throughout 2024. The difference was at its peak at the beginning of the year. This difference can largely be explained by the way bird flu spread. While the North and South American markets were affected by the virus, the European market was spared.
This resulted in significantly lower European prices, making the continent competitive in the global market. Particularly at the beginning of the year, significant differences emerged. For example, in the first week, there was a gap in slaughter prices of around 19 cents. By now, that difference has been partially resolved. Due to the growth in exports, slaughter prices increased, reducing the difference significantly to around 10 cents.
Poland wins
In practice, only one major market is benefiting from the higher exports. Almost the entire growth is attributed to the Polish poultry market. In total, the Eastern European country saw its exports increase by 20.65% from about 309,000 tons to roughly 372,000 tons of chicken meat.
The exports of almost all major producers remained more or less stable. There is one exception, which is the export of the second largest exporter, the Netherlands. The Netherlands saw exports decrease from over 218,000 tons to about 205,000 tons. That is a decrease of 6%. This is not surprising, however. Due to the transition to the Better Life concept, the production of conventional chicken has decreased significantly, resulting in simply less supply.
