Formula One fans know that just one skid can cost a place on the podium. The decision of the United States to increase from 4% to 35% the duty on the entry of Chinese tires into North American territory and thus to compromise an almost US$ 2 billion dollar business being dribbled around in the traditional slippery track of negotiations with that Asian country. The episode, in turn, has everything to not only favor a leap forward of Brazilian meat in the Asian market, but of Brazilian products as a whole.

In retaliation, China presented complaint against the United States in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and already announced that it would initiate an investigation involving over the practice of dumping cars and chicken by the United States. Although Brazil leads the world-wide exports of poultry, its presence in China always was limited by the United States, which is ranked second in the global exports of this kind of product and until then the preferred supplier.

Conquering the consumers of continental China represents a market opportunity for Brazil to add up to 1 million of tons per year in chicken exports. Although that Asian country occupies the vice-leadership in the world-wide production of poultry, and in 2008 had produced 11.8 million tons, the supply is still insufficient to take care of the local demand that in the last year surpassed 12 million tons, according to data from RC Consultores.

The chicken Grand Prix in China is far from an outcome. The back and forth  is something common in that Asian country, since postponing a decision on a deal is common practice  between these millenarian traders, but does not decrease the merit of the Brazilian victory.

First, because Brazil and the United States have some time been strong rivals not only when the subject is poultry, but agribusiness as a whole. Despite heavy subsidies freed by Washington and the economic crisis that decreased the prices of commodities and dampened the appetite of the markets for food, Brazil continues to disappoint as the biggest granary in the world and most competitive player. No other country of the world has available areas with dimensions like ours and merchandise with such low production costs.

In the specific case of poultry, Brazil and the United States are waging an arduous battle for the conquest of markets since we initiated our exports in 1975 to the Middle East. It was not uncommon after a long period of negotiations, for  Brazilian poultry to face the camouflaged competition of North American poultry that arrived at the markets just conquered by us, packed as “humanitarian aid”.

Second, because it represents an important advance for Brazil in dribbling the until then rigid set-up of triangulation of the commercial entrepôt of Hong Kong that goes back to the times in which the province belonged to England and that until then restricted our poultry to the underlying limits of the province.

Third, by the fact that it represents a chance of diversification of our product mix derived from poultry. Usually, the Chinese give preference what popularly is known as the dark part of the chickens, that is, less noble cuts like wing, foot and thigh. Until then, Brazil distinguished itself in exporting noble cuts as breast. Besides, 24 Brazilian traders already are approved for exporting chicken to China, among them Perdigão and Doux Frangosul. 

However, amongst all the factors, what most stands out, concerns the value added. The episode is a type of passport en route to the exportation of products with higher value added for the destination. From the point of view of Sino-Brazilian trade relations, Brazil was seen until then as a mere raw material supplier for the Asian giant: soybeans and bran, ore iron and cellulose. 

For example: when exporting poultry, the country decreases the risk of being hostage to soybean exports, and avoids the difficulties faced today by iron ore. Because it is the largest world-wide purchaser of this raw material, China has been in command at the negotiating table, which has put a global company like Vale in a position of checkmate.  

The Brazilian Agency of Export Promotion - Apex recognizes that Brazilian exports that have most grown to the Chinese market in last the ten years have been commodities. Since March 2009, China has been the main commercial partner of Brazil, surpassing the United States. Between 1998 and 2008, the Brazilian exports to that country had grown more than 18 times (or 1,700%), passing from US$ 904.9 million, in 1998, to US$ 16.4 billion, in 2008. 

However, according to Apex, parallel to the maintenance of the increasing trajectory of the Brazilian growth of the demand for commodities in China, there is potential for the expansion of the sales of products with higher added value, such as: food and drink, machines and equipment, civil construction (steel, iron, cement) and high fashion luxury goods. The projections take into consideration characteristics of the economic evolution of China that allow for foreseeing that the demand for imported products should grow faster in the next years. 
 
Between 2003 and 2008, the percentage of Chinese families that make between US$ 2,500 and US$ 10,000 doubled, going from a  little more than 28% to almost 54%; while the ones that earn between US$ 10 thousand and US$ 45 thousand went from 2.3% to more than 11.3%. Also it increased the number of millionaires in that country. Today 5.3 million Chinese have annual family income of more US$ 100 thousand and another almost 8 million are in the income band of between US$ 45 thousand and US$ 100 thousand. The counterpart of this was the reduction of the poverty: the percentage of families with income inferior to US$ 2,500 per year went from 69% to 33.8% in these five years.
 
Besides the rise in income, is the speed of urbanization of the country: according to forecasts, the percentage of Chinese that live in urban centers will go from 40%, in 2005, to 49.2% in 2015. That is, the cities will gain 152 million new inhabitants in only one decade, which promises to generate a high increase in demand for energy and raw materials for civil construction, without counting the growth of demand in the changes of consumption habits that go with this type of phenomenon. 

In summary, the conquest of the Chinese market is a type of great foreign trade prize, and just like the automobile championship, has various stages, fierce competition, reversals and peculiarities. The breakaway is already there. Our chicken set foot there. Like the example of yakissoba that became popular themselves this way and took over the streets of São Paulo, the Chinese are one step away from getting used to our traditional Sunday barbecue. It is important to remember that Sadia had a barbecue restaurant in the Asian country, in partnership with the Sky Dragon Develop Company Ltd, from 1994 to 2006. 

So, the entry of Brazilian chicken in that market represents an important victory in the direction of also diversifying our list of export destined to the biggest population on the planet and getting close to its consumption habits. That is, to conquer a place at the table of the Chinese and a definitive position on podium of the foreign affairs of that country, as a strategic and more and more preferred partner of products with ever greater added value.