Pig slaughter and
herds are rising in
Brazil, in spite of
stable confinement
of breeding sows,
boosting productivity
gains in the pig farms
Growing
In 2015, the production of pork in Bra-
zil was up 4.9% from the previous year, and
reached a record of 3.643 million tons, ac-
cording to figures released by the Brazil-
ian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA),
and in the meantime, the number of an-
imals went up by 3.4% according to ABPA
numbers, and 6.3%, according to the Bra-
zilian Institute of Geography and Statis-
tics (IBGE). The total number of confined
breeding sows remained at 2.1 million units
from one year to the next, demonstrating
productivity gains by the pig farms.
The number of suckling pigs per breed-
ing sow soared from 24 to 25 a year, whilst
mortality rates were smaller (about 4%) com-
pared to normal rates (6%), resulting into a
bigger number of finished animals, says Rui
Vargas, vice-president of the swine depart-
ment and technical director of the ABPA.
“This results from investments in genetics
and improvements to the productive condi-
tions, with effective results in the final perfor-
mance”, says the official.
“The pig farms have year after year,
month after month, shown improvements
to the internal processes, breeding sows with
a bigger number of suckling pigs, and more
proliferous”, observes, in turn, Valdecir Fola-
dor, president of the Rio Grande do Sul State
Association of Pig Rearers (Acsurs), Valdecir
Folador. “This is an assurance of, although
reducing the number of producers and the
percentage of breeding sows, a no reduction
in the general volumes, by virtue of produc-
tion gains, higher productivity rates and high-
er weight at slaughter”, he complements.
Brazil ranks as fourth biggest produc-
er of pork, coming after China, the Europe-
an Union and the United States. In the Coun-
try, with 40.3 million pigs in 2015, according
to IBGE sources, the purebreds with the high-
est number of genealogical registers over the
year were Landrace (16.05%) and LargeWhite
(13.21%), whilst Duroc, Pietran andMoura to-
taled 1.27%, according to the Brazilian Swine
Breeders Association (ABCS). However, the
biggest number of 235,623 registered pigs
corresponds to crossbreds (65.2%), which, in
their majority, stem from the main breeds.
Of the total number of registers, the
State that is the top pig producer, Santa Ca-
tarina, likewise accounts for the most signif-
icant share of these certificates (98,259 ani-
mals), a reality highlighted in the report by
the Santa Catarina State Association of Pig
Rearers (ACCS), published in 2015. By eval-
uating the then pig farming panorama, he
recalled that in “2014 the activity was still
yielding excellent results”, but problems be-
gan to surface in 2015, like the high pric-
es of inputs and the rumors about the eco-
nomic crisis. These problems got worse in
2016, but, according to several reports of
the sector in early November, they were not
supposed to prevent a new increase in the
production of pork in Brazil.
Sílvio Ávila
52
Fonte:
IBGE
SUÍNOS NO BRASIL
Pigs in Brazil
O rebanho
Ano
Animais
2014
37.930.307
2015
40.332.553
Fonte:
ABPA
para frente
Ahead
produção DE SUÍNOS NO BRASIL
Ano
Mil t
2014
3.471,7
2015
3.643,0
