BRF

The story of BRF begins not as one, but two separate ventures in the heart of Santa Catarina, Brazil. In the early 1930s, the Brandalise and Ponzoni families, both of Italian immigrant descent, started a small business named Perdigão. A decade later, in 1944, Attilio Fontana founded Sadia in a neighboring town. For decades, these two companies grew in parallel, becoming fierce competitors in the Brazilian food industry. The major turning point came in the late 2000s. Sadia, after facing significant financial losses from derivative market bets in 2008, was in a weakened position. This created an opportunity for its rival. In 2009, Perdigão announced it would take over Sadia in a merger to form a new entity: Brasil Foods, or BRF. The move was designed to create a global food powerhouse by combining the strengths of the two former rivals. The integration wasn't instant. The merger was officially concluded in 2013 after receiving approval from Brazil's antitrust authority. The combined company, now formally known as BRF S.A., became one of the world's largest poultry exporters and a dominant force in the global protein market. Following the merger, BRF continued its expansion with acquisitions in Argentina and the establishment of a subsidiary, OneFoods, focused on the halal market.