Brazil seeks to broaden chicken trade with India

SAO PAULO, Feb 20 (Reuters): A Brazilian trade delegation in India is seeking opportunities to sell more Brazilian chicken to the Asian country in return for opening up its home market to some Indian fruit and nuts, Brazil's Agriculture Ministry and industry group ABPA said.

While it is the world's largest exporter of the poultry, Brazil sells almost no chicken to India due to prohibitive import tariffs.

In 2025, it exported only 2.47 tons of chicken to India, while the United Arab Emirates, its top destination, purchased 479,900 tons, according to trade data.

"We discussed expanding trade relations," Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said in a statement.

Brazil is ready to open up for imports of pomegranates and macadamia nuts from India. "In return, we are seeking the opening for guandu beans, along with expanding opportunities for Brazilian chicken meat and yerba mate," Favaro said.

Favaro's meeting with his Indian counterpart was part of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's mission in New Delhi. The meetings there made room for "concrete progress" in bilateral agricultural trade, Favaro said.

India levies tariffs of 100 per cent on chicken cuts and a 30 per cent duty on whole chicken imports, which makes trade nearly impossible, ABPA said. It called talks aimed at tariff reductions "a priority".