In a earnings call for the fourth quarter and the entire year 2023, the controlling shareholder and chairman of the Board of Directors of Marfrig, Marcos Molina, stated that the cattle supply should remain “healthy” in Brazil in 2025.
According to him, today Brazil has the lowest cattle prices in the world and this is in line with Marfrig’s strategy of expanding the acquisition of cattle own, which would bring greater tranquility to slaughtering, greater factory occupancy and productivity gains.
“Calf prices in the first quarter have generated around R$1,600 and there is a record volume in the supply of cows for slaughter”, he assesses.
For 2026, Marfrig’s controller understands that the cattle cycle should be more challenging, which could encourage increases in the price of arroba.
“By expanding our own slaughters, we are preparing ourselves to face a future period in which there will be a drop in the supply of cattle”, he points out.
Expansion of Marfrig’s slaughter capacity
Marfrig informed that, through the evolution of ongoing operations, it intends to expand the cattle slaughter capacity in its operation in South America both in 2024 and 2025, through its plants and industrial complexes in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay .
According to the CEO of the company’s South America Operation, Rui Mendonça Júnior, the slaughter capacity, which reached 5,100 heads/day last year, should reach 7,600 in 2024 and 8,400 heads/day in 2025.
Boning capacity, which reached 6 thousand animals equivalent/day in 2023, is expected to increase to 9,700 head equivalent/day in 2024 and 11,900 head equivalent/day in 2025.
To reach these numbers, Marcos Molina highlights that the company intends to invest in a slaughter integration model, investing resources between R$2 billion and R$3 billion, depending on the price of cattle on the market, to gradually expand the production capacity supply of cattle suitable for slaughter.
He states that today around 10% of the slaughters carried out by Marfrig are its own cattle, and the idea is for this volume to reach 25%. This integration process will enable Marfrig to operate with a slaughter capacity of more than 90%, above the percentage recorded in 2023, he states.
Molina details that part of this investment to be made by Marfrig will be offset during the year by working capital amounts arising from the sale of assets to Minerva Foods, estimated between R$1.5 billion and R$2 billion.
Traceability
Marfrig’s Sustainability Director, Paulo Pianez, highlighted that the company managed to advance its objectives related to bovine traceability. By 2025, Marfrig intends to have 100% of direct and indirect livestock suppliers tracked in all biomes in Brazil.
Also according to Pianez, the company currently has 100% of its direct livestock suppliers monitored by satellite. Satellite monitoring reached 73% of all indirect suppliers in the fourth quarter of last year, reaching 85% in the Amazon and 73% in the Cerrado.
