Entering the South American meat processing market

Overall, the region accounted for 23 per cent of the world’s beef production in 2007.  Brazil is the largest meat exporter in the world - accounting for around 28 per cent of global exports, with the figure expected to rise to 30 percent by 2016.

Per capita consumption of meat is also on the rise in many parts of South America.  Chileans, for example, consumed 81.3 kilos of meat each in 2008, 26 per cent more than ten years ago.

Meat processing plant design company Proand is getting used to hosting visitors from South America. Among those to knock on the door of its Feilding offices this year is the second largest Brazilian meat processor Marfrig. As a result of the visit Proand will soon start work on revamping a Marfrig facility into a new style deboning room.

The company picked up more work out of another recent visit, this time by an Argentinean lamb processor. Proand has been hired to audit a near-complete new facility to ensure it has the capability to install some of the smart technologies it saw operating in New Zealand further down the track.

Proand Director Michael Nidd says New Zealand is well known internationally for innovation in sheep meat processing but it’s capability in beef processing still comes as a surprise to many in South America.

“In Brazil, they historically pick up technology from the United States. More recently they’re starting to look in Australia and a few days in New Zealand is often tacked on the end of one of those visits.

“They don’t perceive New Zealand as being able to offer them anything much in beef processing but if you can get them here and show them round, it really changes their minds.”

Driving the growing demand for smarter ways of processing meat are rising labour costs and pressure from customers and regulatory authorities in areas like energy efficiency, sustainability and traceability.

The sheer size of operations in Brazil also fuels the hunt for processing efficiencies according to Nidd. Another big Brazilian beef processor, Bertin, last year took him to visit a brand new beef plant designed to process 2,000 cattle a day.

“They design for huge throughput and build plants that can’t easily be ramped up and down. They have to make the operation as efficient as possible if it’s going to be profitable.”

Emech Control  is a specialist control valve manufacturer, pioneering technologies that help companies save energy and water throughout the processing chain.

Sales Manager John Mead says the company has been exploring the Brazilian market for about a year, sparking interest from food processing companies looking for energy savings and to meet health and safety requirements in export markets.

He says a common error businesses make is to assume Brazil is unsophisticated.

“You’re unrealistic to think a small New Zealand company is going to show them something they’ve never seen before. Brazil has one of the world’s highest per capita spends on research and development and its big meat processing companies are very well connected around the globe.”