BRF Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 15, 2024

There are 1 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the teleconference from BRF to discuss the results referring to the Q2 of 2024. This video conference is being recorded and then can be accessed at the website of the company atri.brf global.com. The presentation is also available for downloading. And at this moment, all the participants are connected just as listeners.

Operator

And then we will start the question and answer session when more instructions will be provided. Before we continue, I would like to reinforce that the prospective statements are based on beliefs and assumptions of BRF and the current information available for the company. This information may involve risks, losses as they talk about future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not happen. Investors, analysts and reporters may take into account that events related to the macroeconomic environment, to the segment and other factors may make the results be materially different from those expressed in the statements of the company. Present in this conference, we have Mr.

Operator

Miguel Golar, CEO and Fabio Mariano, CFO. Would like now to give the floor to Mr. Miguel, who will start the presentation. Miguel, please start. Good morning.

Operator

I would like to thank the presence of everyone in our teleconference for the results of the Q2 of 2024. BRF continued its trajectory of high performance, presents today the best second quarter in its history, reporting significant growth in revenue of 22.3% compared to the same period in 2023 and EBITDA of BRL2.6 billion. We have improved our profitability for the 6th consecutive quarter with 17.6% margin confirming an excellent performance since the beginning of our transformation journey. We have observed in this quarter a relevant growth both in international and domestic markets. In Brazil, I would like to highlight the growth in sales volumes in all categories, especially in process products.

Operator

We've maintained a healthy level of profitability with a new sequential increase in the margins of the regular portfolio. In international market, we have presented the best margin in the last 9 years. This result was driven by the recovery of prices in several sales destinations and the acceleration of our market diversification strategy. The consolidation of the company's efficiency journey guided by BRF plus 2.0 continues to show improvement in operating indicators and its premises that are already part of the high performance culture of BRF. We remain focused and sustained by our management model, which has enabled us to capture the best opportunities and will allow us to remain increasingly competitive.

Operator

I would like now to invite our CFO, Fabio Mariano, to present the detailed results, and then I'll come back to you with the final remarks on the announcement. Good morning, everyone connected. I would like to get on the main indicators in the Q2 of 2024, starting with net income, which reached almost R15 billion dollars 22% higher than the same period in 2023. For EBITDA, we reported R2.6 billion dollars which give us a margin of almost 18% in the period, the company's best result in the first half of the year. The free cash flow performance was R1.7 billion dollars In working capital, we would like to highlight the inventory cycle, which remained at the record of low of 76 days.

Operator

And in the slide with leverage, we have reached 1.4 times EBITDA in the last 12 months, lowest leverage in 9 years. In the next slide, we show on page 4 on the left, the historical evolution of gross profit with profitability of 26.4 percent in the period. We reported a gross profit of approximately R3.9 billion dollars On the right, we can see the evolution of EBITDA and margins, showing significant improvement in operating results. In the next few slides, we're going to show the performance per market and business segment. Starting by Brazil, we continue to evolve progressively.

Operator

We have reached an EBITDA margin of 15.7 with significant growth in volume, especially in processed food categories, which showed an important increase in sales even in an environment that is still recovering for consumption. In the next slide, Page 6, we emphasize our journey of continuous evolution in commercial execution, reflecting a greater number of points of sales, availability of products in stores and an increase in the number of items sold per customers, contributing, substantially to the performance of domestic market. We also continue focus on leading innovations that meet the needs of our consumers. We have launched new products in pros and desserts and cold cuts categories. In the next slides, we bring the international market.

Operator

We have observed the segment's operational evolution, sustaining health margins as a result of the persistent recovery in export prices. New markets been enabled and good performance in Turkey and GCC. EBITDA margin improved by 4 percentage points compared to the previous period. We saw gains in the share of chicken and pork exports in various destinations. On the next slides, we highlight the growth in processed volumes in Halal market, which favored market share of gains of 1.2 percentage versus the previous quarter.

Operator

Our brands and our own distribution continue to favor the results in the region. Turkey also we have recorded good performance also reflecting the growth on sales of processed products which enabled an increase of 0.5 points in market share, besides good levels of profitability for Natura portfolio locally. We maintained our market share leadership with Adia and Benefit Brands with 38 point 4% 19% 22% in their respective markets. On the right, I present the highlights of the direct export segment. We can see the behavior of prices of the main cuts and how they react.

Operator

We expanded our business alternatives with 32 new permits for several markets, contributing to maximize prices. We already have 57 new export permits for 2024. I will end the presentation of the business segments on the next slide with the performance of ingredients and PAT. The segment reported 11.9 percent of EBITDA margin. It's important to remember that the manufacturer evolution, continues to help maximize the results of company's core portfolio.

Operator

At PATH, we highlight new commercial export agreements and advances in the value levers of our efficiency program, as well as the strengthening of the management team. In ingredients, we remain focused on expanding markets and increasing sales of value added items. Then, I'll share the progress of our efficiency program, which will be quantified in figures by Miguel shortly. I will present the comparisons with the same period last year, colored bars and dark gray. The comparison with 2022 can also be seen in the material.

Operator

In the agricultural sectors, the feed conversion of poultry and pigs fell by 1.9% and 2%, respectively. Chicken mortality fell by 0.6 percentage points and pigs by 0.5. Hatching rates rose by 0.9 percentage points. In industry, we increased 2 3.4 percentage points the production for poultry and pork. In logistics, we reduced the returns and raised the service levels in Brazil significantly.

Operator

On Page 12, we consolidated the following sustainability highlights. We have reached 90% of traceability of indirect grain suppliers in Amazon and Cerrado Biomes. And remember that we have already traced 100 percent of direct suppliers. We ended the quarter with 35 percent of our electricity coming from clean sources, coming closer to our goal of reaching 50% by 2,030. Sajin started to offset a 100 percent of hot balls and mac and cheese packaging, extending successfully the recycling project for packaging adopted for margarines of the Quali brand.

Operator

Through the match funding initiative led by the BRF Institute, we raised over R6000000 for the victims of the floods in Rio Grande do Sul. And finally, we have won the first place in Proteins Sediment in the Merco Responsibility ranking ESG. We now present on page 14, the information related to company capital structure. The chart on the left, we saw the evolution, the decline in the net debt and leverage, which was highlighted at the beginning of the conference. On the right, we can see the debt profile, which remains diversified and prolonged with no concentrations of repayment in the short term and fairly comfortable liquidity position.

Operator

In the next slide, we show the free cash flow. The chart shows an opening cash flow operating cash flow of almost R2.5 billion. The best generation cash generation in history of the company. An investment flow of R756,000,000 and positive financial flow of R69,000,000 influenced by the foreign exchange rate variation in cash and financial investments resulting in free cash flow of 1,700,000,000 riyos. We can also notice in the smaller chart, the evolution of cash generation in the recent quarters.

Operator

On the final slide, we can analyze the decline of net debt between the quarters. We reported net debt of R8.9 billion. The reduction in loans will continue contributing to reducing interest charges in the coming quarters. I would like to thank the audience. I would like to give the floor to CEO Miguel Golar for his closing remarks.

Operator

Thank you, Fabio. To conclude our presentation, I would like to point out that this quarter, we recorded net income of R1.1 billion dollars the lowest leverage in the last 9 years, with free cash flow generation of R1.7 billion dollars This is because of our sequential and consistent operational advances and the optimization of our capital structure. We are maintaining our financial cycle at efficient levels with inventory turnover at sustainable levels. BRF plus 2.0 continues to show an improvement in its indicators and capture 3, 374,000,000 in the quarter, totaling 812,000,000 reals. In addition to the records delivered, it helped to consolidate the attitudes of the company of simplicity, agility and efficiency, very decisive for the performance.

Operator

The consistence of our progress is reflected in the markets we act on. We operate in Brazil. Our commercial execution has advanced day after day and resulted in strong volume growth in the quarter with a special emphasis on the processed category. We continue optimizing our assets and maximizing income in international market where we have a significant margin of 21%. During the first half of the year, we won 57 new licenses with accessing to important new markets such as the United Kingdom, U.

Operator

S. And Southeast Asian countries, reinforcing the diversity of our export platform. BRF's transformation journey is based on the consolidation of a high performance culture. Our pursuit for excellence is also reflected in our internal indicators such as safety, where BRF is benchmarked. With the right people in the right position, we are consolidating the management model focused on results based on collaboration and team engagement.

Operator

I would like to especially thanks the almost 100,000 professionals who remain steady in our purpose of bringing quality food to millions of consumers every day. We are also thankful to the strategic direction and ongoing support from our Chairman, Marcus Molina and the Board of Directors. Our big thanks to our shareholders and the ongoing partnerships of our integrated producers, customers, suppliers and the communities where we are present. I would like to finish by saying that BRF is increasingly resilient to the market challenges, taking advantage of the opportunities and ready to continue evolving. Thank you.

Operator

We're going to start the Q and A sessions for investors and analysts. If you want to make a question, please press the button, raise your hand. If your question has been answered, you can leave the line pressing the same button. Wait until we collect the questions, please. Our first question comes from Pedro Fonseca from XP.

Operator

Mr. Fonseca, your microphone is cleared. Good morning, Miguel, Fabio. Thank you for getting answering my questions. And everyone in the BRF team, I have two points.

Operator

First, about the international market, again, a very strong result. I would like to get from you is if you can share what you have in terms of view of the portfolio, what we can expect in the future in the second half of twenty twenty four and also gradually of the market, if you can share, it would be really interesting. And it was also another quarter where we saw new permits for plants, if I'm not wrong, since the new management is over 100. And my question is if there is more room for new permits and new markets. And this would be my first point.

Operator

And the second point I would like to explore together with you is about offer. I think that this non acceleration of offer has several factors. What I would like to explore with you is if you have a view of what would be the main driver if it is in fact a rationality of the market or if in your opinion there is any gap in terms of capability for storing, we're talking about genetics of matrices, Any color in this reading of the offer reading? How can we think about this question looking ahead? This is my 2 points.

Operator

Thank you. Good morning, Pedro. You make an analysis of the market. You're gonna see that we are living some quarters a situation that is really interesting. At the same time that we have a market that is stable between offer and demand.

Operator

This stability is in all geographies, all locations. Usually, at other occasions, we had a market that was stable somewhere, but in somewhere else, we had to offset. Today, we see markets stable with offer and demand balanced everywhere in all locations, including in Brazil. On the other hand, we should also take into account that the number of permits in the case of BRF, with there were 57 permits in this first half of the year, this quarter, 32. It help us in a very important manner to place our production and more than our production, choose where to place this production.

Operator

And it's not as small the importance and relevance of that. I say because when you have new permits, and this also happened at the Brazilian level, you end up not getting the pressure of offer in some markets. And this balance between offer and demand, it becomes more resilient and more present. On the other hand, we have important markets that Brazil is reaching, outcome of these new permits, like, for example, in BRFKs and United Kingdom, we started and came back where the memories of our brands are still strong, but also Japan came back to buy and strongly. We have now the Philippines getting into the market.

Operator

We have Mexico participating as well in this market. And we see that this has an important effect, both in offer placed as in the demand that comes to the offer of finding customers. I also like to draw your attention in this. And if you looked at the Sysex data, you're going to see that Asia in the Q1 of 2024. It had bought 25, uh,000,000 tons.

Operator

And, it came back now in the second quarter to buy almost 147,000 tons. It was always an important demander. It also helps build the market both in volume and price. And lastly, we have a situation where we see that the future perspectives are good perspectives as well, because we see from the standpoint, it's important to remember that the market is an ecosystem, works demand and offer, but also what comprises this ecosystem? If we look at the side of grain that has an impact in our cost, and also in the competitiveness of the protein we sell, we're going to see the world showing a growth in soybean of almost 8 percent and corn of 4%.

Operator

What does that tell us? It tells us that we have an ecosystem, an environment where production of grains and costs and competitiveness of our products, it remains favorable, and the future perspectives are good. And you see, on the other hand, that all locations demanding and demanding consistently. On the other hand, the Brazilian market with full employment works as a balance factor and an adjustment of this relationship of demand and offer. This from the standpoint of the market both domestic and international.

Operator

The second question, I'm gonna leave it to Fabio to answer. Good morning, Pedro. I'm gonna give a little bit of more color in terms of segmentation of international market. I'm going to share some qualitative aspects because you we don't as you know, we don't open the figures for each of sales destination. I think that the first aspect to portray is that international performance, as Miguel highlighted has encouraged the permits.

Operator

We increased sales destinations and then favors maximization of income through prices. The Halal region which is strong region for the company, we have an excellent moment. This is valid for the Gulf countries, but also for Turkey itself where we have a domestic market where the consumption has increased. We went back to have the flex of exportation, so we went back to having more volume produced in Turkey that we can offer to international markets. I would like to remind you that we remain focused on increase in the participation of processed products in this region.

Operator

So from the implementation of the ex tension of process in Born Demon, we increased the offer of products. These products are more resilient in terms of price, and this has helped increase profitability. In the Gulf region, where we have a higher offer of process products and by result we have a throttling vector in margins. And it's worth remembering that the recovery of prices of Protrane favored basically all sales destinations. Miguel emphasized an important regions for the market and also for BRF.

Operator

And adding to your answer, Fabio, I would also like to say that we are working on 40 new permits until the end of this year that will add to this 57 new destinations that BRF was able to enable for 2024. Perfect. Perfect, everyone. Thank you. And about offer, I don't know if you have any visibility or if you could share your view of what you have been, holding back this offer in the local market.

Operator

I'm going to talk a little bit about offer, but Miguel already explored really well what we believe as a good equation. We need also to discuss demand that remains really steady in all markets. But talking about Brazil, the data from PINKL that you follow-up, they suggest an increase of storing. When we translate the storing capability in Brazilian production is expected terms of production below this storing increase. This has to do with slaughtering weights.

Operator

So, we don't see there are no signs. We don't see, apparently any balance coming soon. So, the cycle should continue when we leave Brazil and start to analyze a little bit the U. S. Where we have storage capability.

Operator

But this also go through the hatch. And in China, we see an important production. It's a highlight that we have to follow-up and also in Europe, we see the stability. So it's useless to talk about offer only Brazil. It's not Brazil that explains the prices of protein internationally.

Operator

And again, demand, we have an excellent environment for consumption in Brazil. Miguel mentioned the occupation at levels that for very long we hadn't seen it. And the income available has continued to improve, not to the proper levels, but has improved sideways and increases consumption in Brazil. And we have excellent penetration with our products and with our brands in Brazilian households. And international is not different, especially for poultry protein.

Operator

Excellent, everyone. Thank you for your answers and congratulations for your quarter. Our next question comes from Gustavo Troiano Itau Bebea. Your microphone is clear, Mr. Gustavo.

Operator

Good morning, everyone. Miguel, Fabio, thank you for the questions. I have two points from my side. The first related to costs. I think Miguel already introduced the perspective of grains looking ahead.

Operator

And the second question is concentrated more in 2024 and try to reconcile with the strategy of storage that you have. So, if you could share with us a little bit the levels of inventory in the company. Miguel has always commented of the predictive model. But, to understand your view for this type of deadline and what we should expect this curve for costs as evolving as we get into the second half and the third quarter. This would be the first point.

Operator

The second point, more related to the Newcastle disease that we saw in Brazil. There was a lot of things about the themes. There was some flexing about it. What I wanted to hear from you, if you can, granulate this a little bit more for us, the impact of this on your operation, both from the standpoint if there was any volume that was reallocated to external market in the third quarter, at least from July until now, or if you can explain a little bit the impact on exportations, any volumes that you ended up had to direct with the permits that you had, try to quantify a little bit of the impact on the average price, if you were able to build up volumes to export back, as some imports were made it flexible. Again, any granularity will be welcome.

Operator

Gustavo, let's start. But what you commented on inventory and stock, because the the inventory is the target of your first question has its influence on the second question. BRF has been, doing the management work in a sanitary event like that, you have unsanitary event like that. You have your products that have to go through a destination or redirecting in smaller amounts. Newcastle disease, it was a disease that Brazil stated as a sanitary issue since July on 20th.

Operator

It was published for the World Health Organization for Animals, the survey of the focus. Brazil lives a situation today where you have the markets all reopened. Yesterday, it reopened. Brazil for China, an extremely relevant market for all companies. It's not different for BRF.

Operator

And Mexico had also communicated reopening a few days ago. Today, basically, all countries enabled Brazil again as a whole and some restrictions remain for the state of Rio Grande do Sul. BRF, and now we're going to go to the efficiency operational efficiency program. BRF plus makes the company more efficient, more agile, more efficient company, a more agile company is able not only to manage better the inventory, but also make decisions that are more assertive. I have said in previous calls that we have the price system.

Operator

The pricing system added to a good market feeling. It allows us to make good decisions. You ended up making good choices. When you have to make choices and these choices demand assertiveness, the pricing system makes this assertiveness to be higher. And we at BRF had the Newcastle disease as communicated by the Health Ministry on Wednesday night.

Operator

On Thursday morning, we had designed a plan in case that happened, not in the Newcastle specifically, but the avian flu. But on Thursday morning, we had an action plan and execution on Friday. All the redirection that BRF should and could make, they were already putting that BRF should and could make, they were already put in place and executable. And there is something else, which is the strength of Bridge Go and Saggia brand that allows us to redirect to the internal market without losing income and results. Obviously, we have a challenge ahead in the Q3 where in Rio Grande do Sul, we should recover the status.

Operator

It expected to recover but we don't have yet the impact of the results that this could cause on the Q3. We are very confident. We've been working, taking the opportunity of these 52 new permits, and the strength of our brands that they have in the internal market. So, we are aware that we are gonna overcome this. On the other hand, and not least important, it's important to emphasize taking the opportunity here.

Operator

Just say that Brazil in 26 days, since the Newcastle disease has been declared as an issue, had already been enabled as a market. This shows a strong work for the agriculture ministry and also from the private sector through the associations and its technicians. So, I think that we faced a situation that was complex with a very fast response and very assertive. Perfect, Miguel. Super clear.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Lucas Ferreira from JPMorgan. Mr. Ferreira, your mic is open. Hello, everybody.

Operator

Good morning. First question is about the volume, the question of volume in Brazil, especially in process products. I would say that it's not very usual to have such a strong volume. So I would like you to explore how much of this growth came from a better commercial execution and how much came from the market, a growth and demand and market share gains. So if you could talk about the execution through channels and how the market in general is behaving.

Operator

If you could talk a little bit about the categories, which one performed better. My question is more in the sense of thinking how much of this volume is sustainable from now on volume that we can expect from the company for in the second half of the year. This is the first question. And the second question is about CapEx, consequence of a better volume. The company could expand in some categories.

Operator

So if you could talk, what is in the plans of the company in terms of growth, inorganic growth, organic, sorry. Maybe inorganic, there is nothing relevant. But if you could talk about Ballast fitting more investments, what would be the next priorities of the company? Thank you. Good morning, Lucas.

Operator

I'm going to answer your question about volumes in Brazil. I'm going to try to correlate it to the answer to the second part of the questions about the investments. I think that you well know that we had an important growth in volume in Brazil over double digits when we separate the process product segments from Ennato, this growth was even higher. So there is something associated with the strategy of the company. I remember that one of the biggest gaps of the company in terms of occupation or idleness was associated to industrial lines exactly where the growth materializes, not by chance.

Operator

This is also anchored not only in a consumption environment, but also in the work that we've been promoting in terms of commercial execution and this execution being made in an excellence mode by our sales force, our sales team. So that our highlights like penetration, number of customers that surpass 300,000. We have an expansion of room in the shelves items sold per customer. Qualitatively, if we mention the categories that are predominant that justify this growth, I would mention, the cuts, the process cuts, and also, frozen categories where we commercialize, where we trade not only frozen food, but also breaded and hamburgers products. It's not by chance that we compare the readings for share for the 3rd, quarter versus the second.

Operator

Those are the categories where we advance. So, said that implies the growth of BRF above the growth of each of these categories. So, I mentioned the question of reducing idleness in industrial lines. We are very in industrial lines. We are very optimistic in regards to maintenance of volumes for the second half of the year.

Operator

If this happens, if this is the pace of growth, yes, the company is going to start evaluating, very much bending to growth in capability. As we said, the demand exists and it's steady. And we would do that, especially from 2025 on, allocating more resources in favor of the sustainable growth of the company, obviously, without destroying value. On the contrary, so as a company to continue with their business profile and their competitiveness in the market. Thank you, Fabio.

Operator

Our next question is from Santiago Duarte from Bicis Gepaktois. Eduardo from Bessie Gepaktois. Eduardo, your microphone is open. Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Operator

Miguel, Fabio, it's a pleasure to talk to you. I would like to touch 2 or 3 points. First, go back to a prior question that was not clear for me. If you could share a little bit the view for the cost curve, we know very well. Last year, you were very successful in your strategy for inventory.

Operator

We see that in unit cost when we talk about grains, you see that impact on unit prices very favorable for the company. And, if you, and also, in the meantime, when we look at the evolution of your unit cost and the evolution of market prices of your main raw materials, it gives the impression that this cost, at least from the standpoint of direct costs, it is close to the floor. It's not going up, but it's not falling. I wanted to understand if you share this reading when we think of unit costs now for the second half of the year now about the harvest in Brazil for grain that are majorly known. This is the first question.

Operator

The second question, a little bit of the link of the prior answer from Fabio. You talked a little bit of capped this volume performances. Obviously, the company is going to evaluate the capability expansion. But by the extension of what you suggest, it is not very that much of an investment. So I wanted to understand if my reading of your tone is right.

Operator

And if that's the case, how should we think of capital allocation for the company? Because the leverage is full cash generation also, we should imagine what expansion of dividends, higher payout, repurchase, acceleration, organic, inorganic growth. It would be interesting if you could talk a little bit about that. And lastly, a comment, Miguel mentioned a lot about pricing and how this granularity specificity in defining pricing in the external market is very successful. I wanted to understand if there is more room when we look at your average price in the external market versus SysX, you opened the premium closest to the highest in history.

Operator

I wanted to know if you understand that the premium of the average pricing regards to SysX is sustainable. Thank you. Good morning, Thiago. I'm going to start by the order of your questions. Starting by the cost curve, we've had 2 angles to look at it.

Operator

The first one is the feed price. And by consequence, we have to talk about corn and soybean and alternatives. We understand that there is a marginal room for a fall in the second half of the year, not in the magnitude that we have observed, but there is a sideways room because there is a part of trading of the small harvest. It's not relevant. A major part of the small harvest is the states, have had a 100% of the harvest, but there is a part that is going to be traded and we expect to take advantage of these negotiations.

Operator

There is another perspective that involves, especially, the efficiencies that affect costs. So we have to remember our program, which is a journey of continuous improvement. And this commitment is going to prevail always. We have recordings of 374,000,000 in the quarter, where we add to 800,000,000. So we have the conditions to continue performing the program.

Operator

This should keep up the additional support for cost reduction. If we open a little bit the window, we can are very optimistic in regards to the 2025 harvest potential. Miguel shared some data. We already have the predictive model suggesting the expansion of the harvest for soybean in the world around 10%, Expansion of the corn, harvest around 4%. So, we expect to see a positive scenario for a prolonged period.

Operator

About capital allocation, I mentioned the investments for Brazil for industrialized products. It has to do with the pace of growth of processed products. It's important to remember that we have a growth in demand in international markets. And as we analyze and associate it with adding value, we could get something in the sense to address this demand. I like to remind you that we have a Genevieve with BIAF where we tend to prioritize our presence in Saudi Arabia.

Operator

So we have been discussing very deeply case studies of different ways to make investments. So this should happen either sooner or later. When we think about compensation, capital, our own capital compensation, the management continues creating the conditions for the company to be profitable. We accumulate net profit of 1,700,000,000. So there is guarantees that are to pay dividends.

Operator

So that's why we're working so much focus with dedication. The expectation for the year is to expand even more this net profit, but the form of compensation of this capital and the intensity will depend on the strategic guidance from our controller and their administration board. There are conditions. There is room for that to happen. Recently, we announced a relevant material fact with a repurchase program additional program.

Operator

We are sure that our action is under evaluate. Our shares are under evaluating in the market and there is room for evaluation. And our work is to make that our perception is the general market perception as well. I'm going to give the floor to Miguel to answer the last question about pricing. Railing pricing has a relevant role, Thiago, because pricing at the same time that it allows to transit through opportunities in an assertive manner.

Operator

It comes together with the capability of the company to work so these choices can be executed. It's useless to have a pricing system that shows the best pathways. And from the operational standpoints, you don't have the conditions to trace these Pathways. And there is an important aspects that I would like to highlight when you have a philosophy like we have at BRF of selling to produce and not produce to sell. You always have a commercial portfolio where the main choices already driven by the price and assertive systems are already taken.

Operator

And, you shorten this portfolio maximizing the results of your decisions. On the other hand, the premium pricing system turns into the systems where you build with quality, brand strength, working on products and innovation, and BRF has been working intensively on this. Another important aspect is when you have new destinations, and in this case, in this quarter, this half of the year, we have 32 just in this quarter. You are also able to use this choice capability. So, this premium pricing is more evident and intense.

Operator

That's what we saw happening. Obviously, the market helped because you have a market demanding in all locations and you have a company that is paying attention with, information quality information to make decisions and choices. Very good. Super clear. Thank both of you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Ricardo Boyat from Safra. Mr. Boyat, your microphone is open. Miguel, Fabio and other attendees, thank you for taking my question. 1st, just some clarification and a follow-up in regards to the question on offer and demand that was already well committed.

Operator

My question is already specifically in the lines that had capability expansion recently with you mentioned clearly that the demand is very steady and this is well reflected in the volumes and prices. But, in this specific lines, sausages and breaded products, is there any impact that was noticeable in the entry of additional capability recent in the market or not? Or if this was unnoticed with the strength of the demand that we've been absorbing. And also in the same line with programs that have been already announced in the Middle East. If this is a point of attention, something that can somehow tweak the balance in this important region for very strong for the company?

Operator

This is the first question. Then the first question is an update, if you could share in terms of the integration, the operational integration and synergies that you are already able to obtain because you're part of the same group. In terms of costs, gains with maritime freight, is there anything relevant in terms of commercial management as well, comprehensive portfolio to negotiate with the main customers? Has this helped, gain the share of wallet or more room? These are my two questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ricardo, I'm going to start by answering good morning, by the way, and then I'll give the floor to Miguel for the second part of the answer. You mentioned about the offer and demand, offer available even with announcements, recent announcements. I think that is natural that there is offer. We have mentioned just now that BRF still have idleness in industrialized product lines.

Operator

There is demand and will continue steady. We have a population growth that is important. The asymmetrics where this population of growth comes from in regions where we have, we are very much present. So, it's natural that the investments continue happening. What is important to portray is that this capability, the idle capability, systemic capability, that there is more or less in some categories, it hasn't impacted the market dynamics.

Operator

So we don't see any, right now, in terms of prices because of volume. So we see a competitive environment that is really balanced. It's not being different from what hap what has been happening in the past few years. That's what I wanted to highlight. You also mentioned the Middle East.

Operator

So the Middle East, we have an important presence. We have a competitive advantages of having our own distribution in most of the countries in the Gulf, as the case of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Emirates. So, it's obvious that we also have competitors, local competitors, but Brazil continue being a very competitive platforms with our products. We also mentioned our prioritization of growing in the region of Saudi Arabia. This will happen.

Operator

I'm going to give the floor now to Miguel to address the theme of integration with Marfrig. Ricardo, evidently, we are in this trail of pursuing excellence, and this trail has a point to the 2 companies, they perform and pursue excellence constantly. When we use the model of using benchmarking, I'm going to remember what I said in the last quarter BRF when we implemented the BRF 2.0, BRF plus 2.0, it didn't have the reference, the year of 2019 and he started using as reference our own operation in certain geographies, certain locations. And this comparison of locations not only go through BRF plans, but also Marfrigue plans, which are the best practices of each companies are replicated in each of them. For this benchmarking, we're going to find synchronized and complementary movements in supply.

Operator

It's very relevant. You have the power to buy higher volumes and negotiate it better, but also in commercial division because you start having an approach with the customers. As a company, multi protein, where you end up having information and making measurements of the market, supporting the information from one company over the other. All these processes are used under the best governance with all the contracts and the care of related parties. We obviously have ahead in the future a construction to use the best practices from each company, not only the best practices, but also in the geographical aspect.

Operator

And this starts happening in exportation because for an international customer is also interesting to have a vendor, a quality vendor, both in pig protein and also poultry protein and beef protein and it couldn't be different. You end up having an improvement in your costs, you increase volume and the structure to execute that you are able to have a lighter and more competitive structure. Great. Thank you. Our next question comes from Henrique Bufani from Bradesco BB.

Operator

Your microphone is open. Good morning, Miguel, Fabio and all team. Thank you for taking my question. Two points that I would like to explore. First, about profitability of domestic market.

Operator

If you could comment a little bit about this evolution of gross margin that we see at every quarter of 1 point a half, a little bit more, what was the contribution of in Natura, products content and process products contribution? And when we think about the face of BRF and the domestic operation over the second half of the year, if it makes sense to imagine that the growth of EBITDA should come especially from revenue growth as this new volumes come to the market? Or if you see any room, representative room for EBITDA margin growth either by mix or all the deficiencies that you may have from BRF plus? Or again, is it more growth that we should think of margins that are approaching? This is the first question.

Operator

And the second is a follow-up for a point that a comment that Fabio made about poultry meat growth in Brazil will below the storage. And I understand it is by average weight. This is a point that wasn't clear in my mind. So if you could comment a little bit of what is behind that, even when we look at the incentives in the chain. The impression we have is that the incentive is for the maximum production.

Operator

So, what eventually will impact the average price in the sector today? And how relevant is the average weight effect when we think about the number of storage that it can be offset by that? These are the points. Thank you. Hey, Hickey.

Operator

I'm going to start answering for you about profitability in Brazil. You asked a little bit about the opening and the contribution of Inatura and Processed Products. You know that predominantly, we sell in Brazil in Processed Products of added value. This represents over 70%. Profitability of Inatora products has been growing.

Operator

As a response to the price increase of protein internationally, this has been happening in all sales destinations in Brazil is not different. Inatura products favors the growth of margins in the domestic market, obviously obeying the weighing of its participation of 30%. When we compare today the profitability of Inertura versus processed products, there's an important gap. Profitability of processed products follows remains much more representative than the profitability of Innatura products even with this margin expansion that I have just mentioned. I didn't want to anticipate and talk too much about the margin expectations ahead.

Operator

We can't even give this type of guidance, but I can say that it's not exclusive from revenue as you mentioned. Recently, we had just discussed cost. We are very optimistic about efficiencies of the program. We have relevant captures and records for the semester. We intend to keep the pace and synergies that are going to have impact on our technical matrix and industrial yield and performance and consequently our costs.

Operator

About the poultry production, what we commented is that according to a pink data, there is a storage growth around 2%. And we have projections for growth of production in Brazil for 1a half, implied that we have a question of weight. So this is what we place. It's an interpretation. I didn't mean that it is a reality, the question of weight.

Operator

It depends on the company. Understood, Fabio. Thank you. Our next question comes from Lucas Musi from Morgan Stanley. Mr.

Operator

Musi, your microphone is open. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. Congratulations for the results. I just wanted to go back to the topic of production capability in the sector and using what Fabio mentioned about cuts going up 2% a year.

Operator

We see a different dynamic on matress, cut matress's storage. I wanted to hear your perspective. What explains this major difference, at least in the last decade, has a high correlation between types of cuts and the matrices? I wanted to understand a little bit more of what you see as dynamic and explain a little bit more. And the terms of the profitability is very attractive in the sector, but we still see the problem of matrices storage.

Operator

This is my first question. My second question, you had expressive numbers in permit increase in international market. But in the short run, I wanted to hear from you in terms of attractiveness or mid and long run for some specific locations internationally speaking. What do you see as most interesting where BRF is better positioned today, where your product is better accepted, you're more competitive? What markets do you see with good eyes in international market?

Operator

That's my question. Thank you. Good morning, Lucas. I'm going to address the first question and then I'm going to give the floor to Miguel to address about the permits. You asked about matrices and I just wanted to remind you that in case of BRF, we have the prior chain.

Operator

We start to reproduce from the grandmothers, matrices, and then we have what we call the cut chicken for the termination phase at the chicken farm. So, the question of the storing matrices has to do with the slaughtering matrices that happens in some years. It's not only what you store, but you have to combine in situations of offer adjustments to slaughter. What I can tell you is that we have an expectation of reduction, the storage of matrices for the next year. Going to 59, it's a reduction around 2, 3%.

Operator

This is what I can tell you. This is data that you have the capacity to access. You are permitted to access. When we think about storage and matrices that have impact on the offer, we have also to combine with demand, which is something that we've been defending a lot. There is balance in this equation and we don't see signs, apparent signs of unbalancing coming soon.

Operator

So I wanted to highlight again, I would like to emphasize this aspect. Miguel, I would like to give you the floor to address the second question. We are working very strongly on 40 new permits, but especially to capitalize this 57 we've had the year of 2024. When we look at the strategy from BRF, it's really clear and we are going to work with premises of not destroying values in any of the markets we operate and add value. Our growth both in the our plant area that has an idleness level that we are working on mitigate and markets where we allow by choice of price into place products with better margin.

Operator

We make that happen not only Brazil, as Fabio mentioned, but especially in expectation in the case of the Middle East. We we are leaders in KSA and, in the Middle East and the process of growth could not leave aside the intentions of growth in this market where our brand is a brand that is an icon. We continue working on all markets, taking the opportunity of diversification of those markets. We understand that it's not a good, commercial health practice to concentrate all the destinations and customers in only one. It's important to have diversification and make use of it, regardless of the volume is being higher or lower in each destination.

Operator

Be present in all destination. It's an old commercial practice that works really well. On the other hand, if you go to the SESAC data and let's look at the numbers that are public, you see MENA, which is the region that I have just mentioned, it has relevance even higher than Asia. So we saw in this first half, so many as 600,000 tons out of the 400, over 400,000 tons that Brazil has exported and Asia with 147,000. So if you look at the line of the last, quarter since 2023 has been showing growth.

Operator

And this growth has been enjoyed by our company as Fabio already mentioned, a strong distribution, a strong brand, active teams paying attention to this market and the focus on growth with added value. We're glad if we got this all. Thank you. Our next question comes from Guilherme Palaris Santander. Mr.

Operator

Palaris, your microphone is open. Thank you for taking my questions. I have very briefly two questions. Fabio, if you could talk about monetization of tax credits. We saw the company announcing over 700,000,000 in the first half of the year.

Operator

What can we expect from that looking from now on into our cash generation? That is really strong. And the second point for Miguel, you had commented in the last call about BRF plus 2.0 being a benchmarking for operation. If you could go further among the best and worst operations of the company in terms of volume or improvement or some metric that you can share in terms of performance dispersion within your units or locations and the opportunities? I'm going to start with the credits.

Operator

Guilherme, good morning. We have to analyze from 2 aspects, the aspects of federal taxes. We recurrently have been able to offset the Pisco fines non cumulative Brazilian taxes. We also have to remember the ISMS as a base of Pisco fines. These are all Brazilian taxes.

Operator

We understand that this is going to take longer for us to be able to monetize almost 2,000,000,000 that we have in of taxes to recover. At the state level, we work with a big focus on trying to optimize the way we get to our consumers by different states where we operate. Recently, we even concluded even it was explained in our explanatory notes, a transaction involving the ISMS in the state of Sao Paulo, where we acquired credits from our Frigate. This has to do with the work of trying to optimize the most possible, the reimbursements involved with the state taxes. We continue with a lot of credit to offset the payment of taxes, especially federal taxes that have to do with income tax.

Operator

The company goes back to being profitable and we have this impact. But I wanted to remind you, the tax loss balance that's been accumulated, We even have tax losses that haven't been accounted for yet. So there there's still a lot of guarantees to be used over our journey. Miguel, back to you to wrap up the answer. Guilherme, BRF plus 2.0, which is BRF of 2024.

Operator

We are already in an intense process of work BRF plus 3.0. It is not a performance program only, but it's also a culture in the company for high performance. It's a cultural program. And it's important to remember that BRF plus doesn't only go through industrial plants. BRF plus go through all the links of the company in the field, in the industry, transit, in the management, financial divisions, commercial divisions, international division, the different locations of the company.

Operator

So, it's obvious that when you place as a benchmark, the internal benchmark, and you end up, it's a continuous process, so you end up every time you are looking with attention to a certain detail, location, or practice, you find opportunities. I would say that the only question that I don't know how to answer, and I don't know, I don't want an answer, is the limit of BRF plus. BRF plus is continuous improvement, and that doesn't have limit. The intensity and the opportunity are movable. Sometimes they're going to be higher or smaller, but there's always going to be opportunity.

Operator

We have at BRF as a motto to be ready to learn, to learn from what we see in the market and learn from what we do in different location. If you visit a BRF plant, you're gonna see a management board where you have the performance of that location compared to other location. So there's a certain healthy competition between locations finding opportunities. It's a movable board. So 1 week, a plant generated a certain rate, but then in another, we can be behind.

Operator

It is a dynamic process. And another aspect that I wanted to highlight that we have just finished at BRF about a month ago, an environment program, engagement program. And BRF is a highly engaged company in all divisions. And I repeat something we've been working on, a guidance that we've been adopting by instruction of our controller is that it's useless to have excellence islands in the company because excellent islands don't make an excellent company. An excellent company is made of it's a synchrony company with everything harmonized.

Operator

So painting red or blue walls, this is the BRF plus base. This makes the cultural program making the performance program into a cultural programs for high performance. Perfect. Thank you.

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Earnings Conference Call
BRF Q2 2024
00:00 / 00:00