The IQF market
Usually, poultry processors promote fresh products in order to protect their domestic sales channels from foreign competition. When selling frozen products there’s a lot of competition, as transport and storage times are irrelevant. The market is open to everyone in the world trying to sell IQF products. Brazil and the USA are the world’s major frozen product exporters. Brazilian processors face logistical and climatic challenges making it difficult to sell fresh products domestically. Fresh production makes up only 20% in Brazil with 80% being frozen. Processors tend to freeze chicken fillets already packed in trays and sell them to national supermarkets. Their large export market is not surprising. For the USA, it’s basically the same. They also export a lot of products, mainly leg quarters to Latin America, Africa and Asian markets.