Posted by Poultry World editor, Richard Allison, in Brazil
Well after what seemed like a days on a plane, I've made it to the world's fourth largest city, Sao Paulo. At the centre of this city of 30 million people, is the head office of the Brazilian Poultry Exporters Association (ABEF).
The first thing that strikes is how much the Brazilian government is helping the poultry sector to succeed, by part funding an new initiative to boost the image of Brazilian chicken.
My visit marks the start of a new era as the Brazilian industry looks to reach out to UK and EU consumers. I'm part of the first wave of journalists invited to visit poultry units.
ABEF international relations manager Christian Lohbauer explained that the aim of the initiative is to address the myths. These include: "welfare standards on Brazilian units are much lower than in the EU" and "Amazon rainforests are being cut down to make way for now poultry units."
I have come with an open mind and hope to find out more later this week.
However, one argument which ABEF wishes to put to the EU public makes me very nervous. That is, it claims that without EU trade tariffs and with a fully free market, consumers would save money as the price of chicken would fall from £12.5/kg boneless chicken breast to £4.5 for Brazilian product.
But the latest NFU costings show that UK producers are already losing 4p/kg on the current prices received.
Mr Lohbauer admitted that he understood why the EU had import tariffs and quotas, namely to protect the livelihood of EU producers. "But this goes against the principle of free trade," he said. "Imports are part of life."
I'm sure this debate will continue.
Tomorrow, I'm meeting the Brazilian minister of agriculture and you can email me any questions you wish me to put to him.