BRF intends to win foreign markets with processed foods

BRF, a company created by the merger of Sadia and Perdigão, is preparing to change the global market sharply and become a multinational food company.

BRF wants to stop being a commodity exporter and substitute its sales of unprocessed meat for processed foods, with the brand, convenience and added value.

“We want to use the domestic business model abroad,” said Antonio Augusto De Toni yesterday, the company’s vice president of foreign market.

“We are creating a structure to become global,” said BRF president José Antonio do Prado Fay.

The structure includes a new organization for the corporation. The global operations are likely to be separate from the Brazilian, including a global president for BRF.

Although products of the Sadia and Perdix brands can be found in the 140 countries to which BRF exports, it wants to increase its presence abroad.

The first step was investing in marketing. After 18 months of work, a new visual identity was created for the Sadia brand, the same for the entire world, and it will become “premium”.

In the operational area, the plan is to process the meat produced in Brazil in units abroad. By the end of the year, BRF will inaugurate a processed food factory in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, and will make a final decision on another unit in China.

Another strategic point is increasing its own distribution abroad. Last year, 22% of the products sold by BRF outside the country were distributed by the company itself. BRF wants to reach 30% in 2013.

(Tathiana Freitas, Translated by Thomas Muello | Folha de S. Paulo)