SAO PAULO (Reuters) — JBS SA, the world’s largest meat packer, expects China’s demand for food imports to remain strong despite slower economic growth and believes its sales to the Asian country will increase by 20 percent in 2014, an executive said.
In 2013, the company’s sales to China totalled nearly $2 billion, Joesley Batista, president of JBS’s board of directors, told journalists at an event in Sao Paulo on Monday.
“This slowdown that China is experiencing, sometimes it affects construction and infrastructure first,” he said. “In the food area, we are talking about social inclusion in China, and that is growing in a big way.”
JBS sells beef to China through its units in the United States and Australia. China stopped importing beef from Brazil in 2012 over concerns of mad cow disease but is expected to resume soon as its demand for protein rises.
The company also exports pork and chicken to China from Brazil, the United States and Australia.
