Morning, welcome to Minerva Foods conference call to disclose the results of the fourth quarter of 2021 and the year 2021. Today with us are Mr. Fernando Galletti de Queiroz, CEO, Mr. Edison Ticle, IRO and CFO, and Mr. Taciano Custódio, Sustainability Director. We would like to inform you that the presentation is being recorded, and all participants will be connected in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. Later, we will begin the Q&A session for analysts and investors when further instructions will be given. Should you require the assistance of an operator during the conference call, please press star zero to reach the operator. The audio and the slides of this conference call are being presented simultaneously on the internet at www.minervafoods.com/ir. You will also be able to find the respective presentation for download on the platform of the webcast under IR Relations.
Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call relating to the company's business outlook, projections, operating and financial targets, are based on the premises and assumptions on the part of the company's management and on information currently available. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they refer to future events, and therefore depend on circumstances which may or may not materialize. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors may affect the performance of Minerva in the future, thus leading to different results which differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I now turn the floor over to Mr. Fernando Galletti de Queiroz, CEO. You may proceed, sir.
Good morning to all, and thank you for attending this conference call to disclose the results of Minerva for Q4 and the year 2021.
Minerva ends 2021 and reports very sound results. This strengthens our corporate strategy and consolidates our leadership in South America as one of the main players in the global beef market. Despite the very challenging scenario, 2021 was a year of achievements for Minerva Foods. Again, we delivered strong operating results and financial performance, with record revenue and EBITDA very close to BRL 600 million in net income, strong free cash flow, and a sound balance sheet. Our geographic diversification has proven to be one of the main drivers of our business strategy. It is essential to mitigate against risks and increase opportunities. It was also fundamental in a year with challenges and a lot of volatility. At the end of 2021, we implemented yet another part of our strategy and began operations in our Australian plant.
They complement our South American operations, allowing us to maximize commercial opportunities and operational synergies, thus reducing the risks and contributing to consolidate our position in the global animal protein market. Our innovation agenda moved forward based on our corporate venture capital pillar and investments in start-ups linked to our business, such as Shopper, Amyris, and Thrive. We also focused on our e-commerce and marketplace initiatives, thus enhancing our presence in online sales platforms and improving our distribution to the domestic market. These are initiatives of Minerva Foods to maximize commercial opportunities and further create value. These are initiatives that seek to create value for our business. We also focused on our sustainability agenda, where we had major achievements and taken on commitments throughout the year.
We have consolidated our position as a benchmark in the animal protein sector, and we have further endorsement for the quality and integrity of our products, which gives us increasing access to the domestic and international beef market. Finally, creating value for our shareholders was once again a major achievement. We paid out substantial dividends and disbursed more than BRL 600 million in 2021. That is BRL 1.12 per share. The payout has been consistent for two consecutive years and is a major driver of our strategy to create shareholder value. On slide two, I'm going to talk a little bit about the main highlights of Q4 and 2021.
I start with net income, which was positive for the ninth consecutive quarter and totaled BRL 150 million in Q4 and BRL 599 million in 2021. The result of the year attests to our strategy towards creating value for shareholders. Company has, quarter- after- quarter, delivered to the market exactly what we promised, financial discipline, profitability, free cash flow, and creation of value for the shareholders. As a reflection of the good financial performance in 2021, Minerva's management will propose in the shareholders meeting the approval of a complementary dividend totaling BRL 200 million or BRL 0.34 per share to be paid in the beginning of May. When added to the BRL 200 million in early dividends which were paid in November last year, mean that the company will have paid out nearly 70% of the income reported in 2021.
In the year, and if we consider everything that was effectively paid out in 2021, Minerva has distributed over BRL 600 million in dividends, which illustrates the company's focus on generating value for the shareholders. Going back to the results, we are now going to talk about free cash flow, one of our priorities. This was positive for the 16th consecutive quarter and totaled BRL 213 million in the quarter and BRL 1 billion in 2021. The company has generated more than BRL 4.5 billion in free cash in the last three years, which attests to the excellence of our operating financial management. The consolidated net revenue was a record in the quarter, BRL 8 billion, and in the year, where we reached BRL 28.6 billion, nearly 40% increase relative to last year.
In this context, it is important to highlight the performance of our exports, which accounted for 64% of our gross revenue in the quarter and about 70% in the year 2021. This is a consequence of the consistent global demand for beef, and this attests to our exporting vocation. In terms of operating profits, our EBITDA was record and was BRL 735 million in Q4, a 19% increase year-over-year and with an EBITDA margin of 9.8%. In 2021, EBITDA totaled BRL 2.4 billion, the highest ever recorded by Minerva, and this was despite the challenges and volatility we saw in 2021. In line with our commitment to capital discipline, we closed Q4 with a stable net leverage at 2.4x net debt over EBITDA. Our liquidity was also at a comfortable level at year-end.
We had BRL 7.3 billion in cash. Together with a debt duration of 5.8 years, we have plenty of flexibility to tap the opportunities in the next few years. Speaking of our balance sheet, we continue to improve our capital structure. In Q4, we carried out the 11th debenture issue for a total of BRL 400 million. We used these funds to pay for the sixth issue, and this allowed a reduction in the cost of this debt. Additionally, in Q4, we repurchased $83 million in bonds maturing in 2028 and 2031, totaling $172 million in repurchases in 2021. These initiatives attest to our commitment towards a sound capital structure which is well-balanced and less costly. In our presentation, Edison is going to give you a little bit more color about these operations.
Moving on to the other highlights of Q4, at the end of the quarter, in the end of November, we paid out BRL 200 million in early dividends, which, added to the amounts paid beforehand, totals the expressive amount of BRL 604 million distributed in 2021. That is a dividend yield of 11%, one of the highest in the Brazilian market. We continue to create value for our shareholders, as I said, and abiding by our policy for dividends, we are going to propose complementary dividends for BRL 200 million, which is going to submit it to the approval at the shareholder meetings at the end of April. Edison is going to talk about our efforts to maximize the creation of value for Minerva shareholders.
As regards sustainability, we saw important achievements, and we championed initiatives that position ourselves as a reference in the sector of animal protein. We have joined the carbon credit market through our subsidiary, MyCarbon. At Athena Foods, we have become the first company in the sector to monitor 100% of the suppliers in Paraguay and thus achieving one more target of our commitment to sustainability. In Brazil, we continue to move forward in terms of monitoring our suppliers by expanding and integrating Visipec to our monitoring system. As a reflex of our leadership in the sustainability agenda, we are the only company in beef protein sector to be part of the Corporate Sustainability Index of B3 for the second consecutive year. This is a recognition of the long-standing work to achieve sustainability that we have been developing.
Taciano, our Director of Sustainability, is going to give you more details about our ESG agenda in 2021. On slide three, I'm going to comment on the operational performance of Minerva in the quarter and in the year. I'll start with the exports. At the end of 2021, once again, we were leaders as exporters of beef in South America, and we had 23% market share in the continent at the end of Q4. Our protagonism in terms of beef exports is a result of our geographic diversification and our international offices. This allow us to have large competitive advantage and prominent position in international market. On the right side of the slide, you see the performance by region.
In Brazil, Asia accounted for 52% of the export revenue in 2021, despite the Chinese restrictions to Brazilian beef at the end of the year. For Athena Foods, it was no different, with the Asian continent remaining as the main destination of our products. Asia accounts for 40%. Still speaking in terms of Brazil, I would like to highlight the growth of the NAFTA region, which has now been consolidated as our second major export market and accounts for 16% of the exports originating from the Brazilian division. This reflects not only the reopening of United States to the Brazilian beef in the beginning of 2020, but also the competitiveness of our product and the commercial and logistics capacity of Minerva Foods. As for Athena Foods, exports to the Americas reached 30% of the total exported by the division.
The Chilean market is extremely important. It is one of the most profitable destinations in our continent, and since 2020, has been supplied by our operations from Colombia. Once again, I would like to highlight the success of our strategy towards geographic diversification and the benefits for the operational and financial performance of the company. This has become even more clear at the end of 2020 when we reorganized the company's portfolio. Argentina and Uruguay are increasing the pace of their operations and served the Chinese market during the restrictions in Brazil, while our plants in Brazil increased their supply to other markets such as the U.S., Chile, Russia and the Middle East. I'll give you some more color in the next few slides.
Finally, I highlight that the fundamentals and the outlook in the global beef market are still very sound in the short and long term. We have a conjunction of factors which is very positive for the next few periods, and this will benefit the producers of beef in our continent. The international demand is consistent in emerging markets, especially in Asia. We are heading towards the end of the pandemic, and the global economy is going to recover, which allows consumption to recover as well, especially in tourism and food service. Additionally, climate issues are pushing up the prices of grains in the international market, which will maximize the competitiveness of South American producers.
Finally, the restriction in the global offer of beef, not only in Australia but also in Europe, in a scenario where there is a reduction in the number of animals, which is going to impact North Americans in 2022. There is therefore a difficulty resuming supply given the strong demand, and this creates imbalance in the market, thus benefiting especially South American exporters. I draw your attention to the good outlook for the beginning of the cattle cycle in Brazil. There should be a greater availability of animals throughout the year, which will further contribute to the performance of our industry in 2022. This is a promising outlook, and our strategy is to maximize our competitive advantages by investing in innovation, niche markets, risk management, market intelligence, so that we can design and achieve commercial and logistic solutions that are increasingly efficient and profitable.
We have a strong corporate culture, a strong team, and we respect our commitment toward ethics and sustainability. Before I turn the floor over to Taciano, I would like to talk about the great work we have been developing to improve our corporate management. We have made important steps to improve our organizational culture, which is increasingly solid and is aligned and integrated into the Minerva Foods business strategy. During the year of 2021, several projects were consolidated. For example, our leadership development program. We now offer a module to deal with organizational culture, workshops and training. A series of initiatives focusing on the development of our main asset, our associates. Our organizational culture is an essential pillar of our management model. To continue to grow and go further, we have to strengthen our five values. One, orientation toward results. Two, Commitment. Three, sustainability. Four, innovation.
Fifth, the recognition of our team, of our people. In 2022, we will continue committed to the sustainable future of food in the planet, and we work to provide quality food, bringing together competitive innovation, ethics, and sustainability. This is our purpose, and the strengthening of our organizational culture is essential for the success of this strategy. I now turn the floor over to Taciano, who's going to talk about sustainability.
Good morning. Thank you, Fernando. 2021 was a year of great achievements in our ESG agenda. We undertook the commitment to reach to 2035 with zero net emissions, which is aligned to one of the five values of our company, sustainability. Widely publicized results attest to our target, which prove our leadership in monitoring the supply chain in South America and combating illegal deforestation. We have relevant results to share.
For Scope 1 and 2, we aim at reducing our emissions by 30% until 2030. To achieve this target, we developed a decarbonization plan for industrial operations. Minerva Foods is the only company in the segment which is carbon neutral under Scope 2. That is, those emissions relating to the energy portfolio. Under Scope 3, we have two fronts, ending illegal deforestation throughout the supply chain and engage 50% of our suppliers in the low carbon emission program by 2030. We achieved two important targets. First, we have mapped 100% of our direct suppliers in Paraguay and monitored 100% of the purchases in 2021 relative to illegal deforestation and other criteria. In Brazil and Paraguay, we monitor more than 26 million hectares, an area the size of the U.K., in all regions and biomes.
Second target, we increased the use of risk analysis tools of indirect suppliers in Brazil. Third, we carried out the carbon balance of supplying ranches in all the countries using scientific methodology that is internationally recognized. On slide six, we present the geographic monitoring criteria in Brazil and Paraguay. We aim at monitoring 100% of purchases in Paraguay by year-end. The results of the audit carried out by the Federal Prosecution Service in Pará. This is the main public tool to ensure transparency for fighting illegal deforestation in the Amazon. The office carries out a reliable and transparent audit, which includes third parties as well. Minerva achieved 100% conformity, and as you can see, our commitment is backed up by concrete data. The QR code gives you access to the data.
Given the challenges in the indirect suppliers, we have achieved our target of risk analysis in the Amazon using Visipec. We have more than 99% of conformity with all the results disclosed in our site. In addition to analyzing risks, we use SMGeo Prospec for purchasing cattle. We work with Niceplanet to transfer technology to rural producers throughout the country. All they have to do is download the app to assess geographically those farms before buying cattle, for example. With this collaboration, we encourage our suppliers to monitor their purchases, thus ensuring a deforestation-free chain. On slide seven, we are going to talk about innovation. The low-carbon emission program is called Renove. Renove engages with ranchers to implement practices for a more sustainable and profitable business. We developed 3 pilot projects in 2021 with surprising results.
Together with Embrapa, we measured the carbon balance of 22 ranches in Brazil, which supplied more than 10% of our volumes in the country, and they are below the national average in terms of emission of greenhouse gases. 10 farms have a negative carbon balance. That is, they sequester more carbon than they emit. In partnership with Imaflora, we measure the carbon balance of 25 ranchers in five countries where we operate. These producers emit 4% less than the world average. These results were not obtained with any intervention in production systems. We just measure the carbon balance of our partners using robust scientific methodology. The results demonstrate that sustainable cattle raising with profitability and environmental responsibility is not a strategy. It is already here.
More than 50,000 animals were processed last year, which came from carbon negative production systems. This is only possible if we have technology in the supply chain. With Santos Lab and Biofísica, we assessed more than 380 ranchers as regards their environmental assets. We used satellite images and state-of-the-art technology. 60 ranches were selected to determine the carbon balance and the potential generation of carbon credits from these properties. On slide eight, you see MyCarbon, our subsidiary for the development of carbon projects and trading of carbon credits. Its objective is to support companies to fulfill their targets and become carbon neutral by compensating, offsetting the carbon in a sustainable way. MyCarbon is part of the efforts that the company has been carrying out to implement initiatives that promote practices which are more sustainable and low carbon.
We support ranchers throughout Latin America to adopt high-tech systems to contribute to the reduction of emissions in the value chain. Our carbon credit portfolio is certified and ensures traceability and high quality of the units. MyCarbon is the result of the innovation spirit and our pioneerism in the worldwide carbon credit market. We recognize the need to fight climate change and to support ranchers and companies to reduce their emissions. On slide nine, we present the decarbonization plan of the company. We are working with transparent targets to mitigate our greenhouse gas emissions under Scope 1, 2, and 3 using the projects that I have talked about. We use methodology of Science Based Targets initiative to establish our targets, measure our carbon footprint, and plan the decarbonization of our operations. These are feasible projects and the results will be disclosed in this year.
On slide 10, we have a summary of our sustainability recognitions. We are the only company listed in the Corporate Sustainability Index of B3 for 2021, 2022. This recognizes our commitment to best practices at the environmental, social, and governance level. We are also included in the Carbon Efficient Index of B3 and have improved our position in the Carbon Disclosure Project. In the Forest 500, Minerva was considered as one of the companies in the protein sector with the lowest risk in connection with deforestation. We are also the first Brazilian company to receive the renewable energy stamp for all of our operations. We continue to focus on sustainability as a fundamental pillar of our strategy by reducing our carbon footprint and our water consumption.
We have material results to show today, and we contribute now to the sustainable future of food in our planet. I now turn the floor over to Edison.
Thank you, Taciano. Let's move on to slide 11. I'll start by talking about the operational performance and the breakdown per divisions of the gross revenue of Minerva. Athena Foods is a highlight and accounts for 52% of the consolidated gross revenue in Q4, whereas the Brazilian division was 41% and the trading division 7%. In terms of capacity utilization in Q4, our consolidated utilization rate was 71%, which reflects some operational limitations because of the pandemic. At Athena Foods, the level of utilization was 76%. This was impacted by the reorganization of the operation at the end of October due to a shutdown, one of our plants in Paraguay.
In Brazil, the utilization was 65% as a result of the restriction of exports to China. Consolidated utilization is lower than our historical level of 80%. However, with the resumption of exports to China and the end of the pandemic and the recovery of global economy, we expect it to go back to 80%-85% during 2022, which is our optimal level. We always consider the concept of net utilization, that is the working days of operation in each of the plants in activity. On the right side of the slide, you have the exports consolidated per region for Q4 in 2021. Even with the restriction of exports to China in large part of the quarter, Asia is one of our main destination markets and accounts for 32% of the exports in the period.
This was only possible because China was served by operations in Argentina and Uruguay. The scenario of strong demand for beef in Asia is even more clear now with the share of the continent accounting for 43% of the consolidated exports of Minerva Foods, and it's still our main export destination. I also draw your attention to the excellent performance in the region of NAFTA for the Brazilian division, and this is essentially represented by the U.S. While the restrictions to exports to China were still on, North America was the biggest driver for exports in Brazil and accounted for 30% of the total exports in the semester, in the quarter, sorry.
Brazilian beef was again deemed proper for export to the U.S. in the beginning of 2020, and now it is at higher levels, which contributed for the good performance in the period. One of the main competitive advantages of Minerva is our geographic diversification. This allows us not only to redirect production according to international demand, but also to arbitrate markets so that we can optimize margins, operations, and commercial strategy. The beginning of 2022, even with China back on stream, North American demand is strong and the prospect is excellent. This attests to our assessment of a supplier market demand will outstrip supply. On slide 12, I'm going to talk about financial results, beginning with net revenue, which was record and reached BRL 7.5 billion in Q4, a 32% growth year-on-year.
Although we are a company that essentially exports, the domestic operation in Brazil had a very sound performance in the quarter and made a relevant contribution to our revenue. The distribution in the domestic market is marked by seasonality, and consumption increases markedly in at the end of the year because of the holiday season. Net revenue in the year reached a growth of 40% relative to 2020, and totaled BRL 27 billion, a record for the company. The breakdown of the revenue includes the exports, which now account for 70% of the yearly revenue and 64% in the quarter. In terms of profitability, EBITDA was record in Q4 and reached BRL 735 million, a 13% increase relative to Q3 2021, and 19% year-on-year, totaling an EBITDA margin of 9.8%, the highest in the year of 2021.
Our EBITDA in 2021 totaled BRL 2.4 billion, a 13% increase on an annual basis, and a record for 12 months. In the longer term, our EBITDA practically doubled in the last five years, and this reflects not only the positive outlook in the international market for beef, but also our excellence in terms of financial operational management and risk management. Here, you can see clearly the efficiency of our business model. Our profitability is in the ability to pass prices on to clients, especially when we have a cost push. Despite the recent rises in the price of cattle, which accounts for 80%-85% of our total cost, the company has been able to pass on those increases to the clients, especially in the export markets, which is what we focus on.
This is why we have been able to deliver consistent profitability despite the high prices of cattle in Brazil. I remind you that this is a spread business, and therefore, our capacity to generate value relies on our capacity to pass on any cost pushes throughout the year to clients. Additionally, the geographic diversification has been essential, especially when we talk about Athena Foods, which in terms of supply of cattle, enjoys a more favorable situation than Brazil and has been contributing to increase our revenue and profitability. In addition to the fundamental role of geographic diversification, I would also like to highlight our risk management. We have a very defined model to manage risks, and we focus on arbitration. This helps us increase profitability, especially in moments of great volatility, which we see as opportunities for us to extract value.
Finally, as I said in Q3's conference call, we expected the performance of Q4 to be good despite the uncertainties relating to the Chinese market. This has materialized, and here we are delivering sound financial and operational performance, record revenue and EBITDA, the best EBITDA in the year, and this in a quarter where the operation in Brazil could not export to China. Our geographic diversification, which mitigates risk, the positive seasonality in the domestic market and the good prices in the international market were fundamental for us to achieve these results. When we look at 2022, the scenario is extremely positive. Demand and prices for beef internationally are very attractive. China will resume the import of Brazilian beef very strongly, as you can see in the public data issued by SECEX.
Also the expectation is that there is going to be more availability of cattle in Brazil. In our opinion, these are some of the main drivers that should contribute for the current year of 2022, to allow us to deliver an equally good performance or even better than what we delivered in 2022. On slide 13, you can see our leverage rate measured as net debt EBITDA, including the early dividends, which was stable in 2.4x. Net leverage of the company has been stable since the beginning of 2020, even if we consider BRL 1.8 billion disbursed to repurchase shares and debt, and BRL 742 million effectively paid out to our shareholders in the last two years. I'll give you more about those numbers.
The current level of leverage reflects our commitment to maintain an efficient, less costly and lower risk capital structure, which is totally aligned with our financial strategy. On slide 14, we are going to talk about net income and operating cash flow. We focus on capital discipline and cash generation and risk management. We close the year with a net income of BRL 150 million in Q4. That is a net income of approximately BRL 600 million for 2021. This reflects our commercial and financial strategy, our total focus on generating free cash flow, risk management and reduction of debt. This is essential for Minerva and have contributed to the results we have been posting quarter- after- quarter. On the right-hand side of the slide, you see the operating cash flow in Q4, which was positive by BRL 650 million.
Operating cash flow in the year reached BRL 2.6 billion. Now let's talk about free cash flow, one of our priorities. Free cash flow was positive for the 16th quarter and achieved BRL 213 million after the FX hedge. If we build up the free cash flow in the quarter, we start with an EBITDA of BRL 735 million. CapEx was BRL 231 million in investments in maintenance and expansion and also the recent investment we made in Australia. We have working capital, which burned BRL 63 million in the quarter. This was affected by the inventories and the financial result, which was negative by BRL 331 million. We have a recurring free cash flow of BRL 110 million in Q4.
If we add 103 million, which was due to our hedge policy, we have a free cash flow in the quarter of BRL 213 million. Speaking of the whole year, free cash flow totaled BRL 1 billion. EBITDA at first was BRL 2.4 billion. Annual CapEx, BRL 569 million, affected by the enlargement and upgrading of plants, corporate venture capital and the acquisitions of the plants in Australia. The variation of the working capital in the year was positive by BRL 15 million in the last twelve months, and the financial result was negative by 846 million reais. If we add everything up, the FCF was BRL 1 billion in 2021 as a consequence of excellent operational performance and of discipline and consistency in the financial management.
On slide 16, you will see a little bit about our net debt. At the end of the quarter, net debt was BRL 5.8 billion, not taking into account the effect of BRL 252 million, referring to the exercise of subscription warrants by the controlling group, which takes our net debt down. Another movement was the payment in November of BRL 200 million in early dividends, which increases our net debt. This money went straight to the hands of our shareholders. Going back to the bridge, a positive result of BRL 110 million in free cash flow before the hedge, which was also positive by BRL 103 million, and this decreased our debt. We have the adjustment of BRL 59 million relative to non-cash transactions which impact debt.
Finally, a negative impact of BRL 493 million, which has to do with the FX variation in the debt denominated in foreign currency. If we put the bridge together, Minerva closed the quarter with a net debt of approximately BRL 6.1 billion. The hedging policy protects our balance sheet and is in line with our policy. We must have at least 40% of hedge for FX exposure in the long term. This can be seen in the explanatory notes. Our balance is very much protected, and we feel more comfortable to continue to focus on operational and financial execution to generate value for our shareholders. On the next slide, I'm going to comment a little bit more about the capital structure and our liability management strategies.
On slide 17, you can see that the leverage measured as net debt over EBITDA in the last 12 months and adjusted for the dividends paid in November closed the quarter at 2.4x . According to our cash policy, our position is very comfortable at BRL 7.3 billion. In terms of debt, 73% of our debt is exposed to FX variation, but we do have a policy, a hedging policy, and we protect 40% of our position. This has been very efficient given the recent FX volatility in Brazil. The duration of our debt is 5.8 years, and practically 90% of our debt matures in the long term after 2022. We give you a bit more color about liability management efforts that the company has been implementing since 2020.
In October, we issued our eleventh debenture totaling BRL 400 million, maturing five years at CDI + 1.60. 100% of these proceeds were used to liquidate our sixth emission of debentures, which was paid at CDI + 1.8. We paid it early to extend the debt profile and reduce the cost of the debt. We are also active in the secondary market for bonds. We are repurchasing bonds maturing 2028 and 2031 whenever there is an opportunity. We have repurchased $83 million in Q4, and in 2021 we repurchased $172 million. Most of these bonds were canceled in 2021, and a small amount was canceled in January 2022.
As a result of these initiatives, we have reduced the cost of our debt, our gross leverage, and we have also been able to extend the profile of the debt. Most debt will mature in 2028 and 2021. This liability management attests to our commitment to financial discipline with a less costly capital structure with a view to generating value. The last slide of the presentation focuses on value generation for the shareholder, which is one of the priorities of this management. In line with the excellent operating and financial performance we had in 2021, the consistent execution of the plan to reduce leverage, we decided to propose a distribution of complementary dividends for BRL 200 million.
A dividend of approximately BRL 0.34 per share, and which should be paid in May, pending the approval by the shareholders' meeting. The company has always tried to maintain a balance between a healthy capital structure and the capacity to generate value for the shareholders. You can see here what we distributed in 2021. Considering 2020, total dividends were BRL 542 million, a payout of nearly 80% of the net income, and a dividend yield of 10%. For 2021, dividends will total BRL 400 million, that is 70% of the net income. In the past two years, we have distributed dividends in line with our policy, which is 50% of the net income whenever the net debt over EBITDA is equal or lower than 2.5x .
If we look at the dividends effectively paid in 2021, they were BRL 1.12 per share, which is a dividend yield of close to 12%. In the two periods, 2020 and 2021, the total distribution of dividends will be close to BRL 1 million or BRL 1 billion, sorry, or BRL 1.72 per share. Additionally, considering 2020, 2021, we disbursed BRL 1.8 billion in the repurchase of shares and bonds in the secondary market, which consolidated our commitment towards maximizing value for our shareholders. Financial discipline and the commitment to a balanced capital structure have been respected in the last few years, as you can see in the stability of our leverage levels, even though we have distributed value.
This is not going to change, because even with the complementary distribution of BRL 200 million from, expected in May, our leverage remains in the comfortable level of 2.5x-2.56x net debt over EBITDA. This strategy of making Minerva Foods a payer of dividends was only possible with the dedication of the team. We have created conditions for Minerva Foods to generate and distribute value in a consistent manner. I now turn the floor over to the operator so that we can begin the Q&A session. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session for analysts and investors. Before proceeding, we inform you that the questions will be answered in Portuguese on the phone and the webcast. If you have a question in English, post it on the webcast. To ask a question, press one. To remove your question from the queue, please press star two.
Our first question comes from Ricardo Alves, from Morgan Stanley.
Good morning, Fernando, Edison. Thanks for the call. The numbers are really impressive. I have three questions. The first one has to do with Athena. Since September, we have seen that Argentina and Uruguay have become more relevant, and I would like to have a little bit more color about these markets, especially Uruguay in Q4. The expressive increase in revenue in dollars, is this because of the Chinese export? How is this sustainable in 2022? Have you seen a deceleration in January or February? It's very easy for you to shift production between the countries, this arbitration in the region and so on. Second question regards Brazil. Your volume of products exported in Brazil, you saw a 7% drop.
Can you give us a little bit more color about the performance in Brazil? Are there any markets that you should be focusing on? Should you go to other markets? If I'm allowed, about the allocation of capital, as Edison was saying, the company has distributed a lot of dividends, and we believe that demand is very strong in 2022. The margins should be better. The price of cattle should go down in the second semester. What is your view on cash generation in 2022? You're prioritizing de-leveraging and giving returns to the shareholders. Is this going to continue? Do you have other priorities? As regards liability management, is there anything you can do in 2022? Thank you very much for the call.
Thank you for attending the call, Ricardo. As regards the first question about the operations in Latin America, and especially Argentina and Uruguay. This analysis is carried out on a weekly basis. That's when we shift production. We developed, in the last 2 years, instruments based on artificial intelligence, analytics, and this allows us to work in a faster manner. One of our investment purposes is to have this geographic diversification. This allows us to arbitrate the seasonality of the cattle cycles, currency, and all the sanitary issues. This is one of our differentials, our competitive advantages. We have been investing very heavily in terms of being more agile. This will continue. What we see for 2022 and 2023 is that volatility is going to stay here, but can be a big opportunity if the company has the instruments available.
This is what we have been telling our team. We have empowering people to have more agility. As regards Brazil, slaughter has decreased by 20%, Minerva has decreased by 7%. Yes, it is yet one more example of this cycle. We see now in Brazil a change in the cycle. There were many births in the last three years, and these heads are going to reach the market, and also some females are going to be disposed of in the market. Brazil is going to be a more prominent place, but this will happen, and we analyze situation on a weekly or monthly basis to allow us to make the best option in terms of where to produce and where to sell. Arbitration on both ends.
Ricardo, you asked me to comment about generation of cash and capital allocation. I cannot talk about 2022 because this could be a guidance, but let's look at 2021. In 2021, we made an investment in CapEx of BRL 600 million, and yet we generated BRL 1 billion in free cash flow. If I double the CapEx, I would still generate BRL 500 million-BRL 400 million in free cash flow. If I triple the CapEx, then the free cash flow will be zero in the year. This is assuming that in 2022 we would have the same performance as 2021. I think this is very conservative given what we're seeing now. The prices in dollars in the main markets we export to are higher than they were in Q4.
We have an expectation, especially towards the end of the year, that the cattle cycle in Brazil will give us a larger availability of animals and the prices should drop. If you look at the futures market, there are projections regarding the spot price. How much the drop will be in price, it's very hard to say, but the average in 2022 will not be BRL 340 , the price based in São Paulo, which we see today. If we look at these drivers, EBITDA in 2022 should be higher than in 2021 because of all these factors that I'm telling you about. The other lines in the cash flow will probably be very similar to what we saw in 2021. I'm being conservative here. We can talk about CapEx.
We can look for some expansion cycle, but in a responsible way, without increasing the company's leverage. The cycle of growth that we saw in the last 10 years, where the leverage was above 4% or 5%, this will not happen again. It was a different situation. The market was consolidating. We had to become consolidators in that market, and we had to compete with two companies that had access to very cheap capital, for reasons you all know. I don't have to go into details. We had to position ourselves, we had to be part of that, and we were extremely aggressive in terms of leverage. The size of the leverage, but not the profile. If you look at our profile, we have always been conservative.
Our cash position and liquidity were high, and the duration of debt has always been the longest among the companies in the industry. Today, the situation is different. We can start a new cycle of expansion by using only the operating cash flow generation, which has been strong in the last few years. I would invite you to look at the variation of CapEx while maintaining the other, cash flow items constant with an upside bias. You'll see that in the EBITDA account, we can invest up to BRL 1 billion more than we invested in 2021. That is, our CapEx account could be BRL 1.5 billion. You take out BRL 300 million in maintenance, and the difference could be an expansion CapEx.
This would not compromise our debt, would not compromise our leverage metrics, our ability to pay out dividends or the company's capital structure. We do have the capacity to grow using exclusively the free cash that we generate. Additionally, in terms of liability management, we have been very active in trying to exchange debt papers and extending the debt profile. The major initiative now would be to repurchase our bonds in the international market. The prices are very good. We have actively been doing that, and this contributes to reduce our gross leverage, financial expenses going forward. We should continue to be very active in the bond market. In terms of other liability management operations, we may roll over the debentures whereby you extend but reduce the cost for the same type of debt.
This is a summary of what I said in the call, and I think I was able to answer your question.
Yes, that was very good. Thank you very much. Thank you for the details, Edison and Fernando. Have a good day.
Our next question comes from Isabella Simonato from Bank of America.
Good morning, Fernando, Edison. Thanks for the call. My question has to do with profitability. It was above what we expected in a difficult scenario. Can you comment on the margins throughout the quarter, especially in Brazil? Can you give us a little bit more color about the differential of profitability between Athena Foods and Brazil? As much as you can. If you can give us numbers, this would help us understand the numbers that feed into the consolidated results.
As I said to Ricardo when answering the previous question, with the scenarios of increasing volatility, and we decided to diversify in terms of geography. I'm going to further explain this. There was a moment when one of the major markets closed their doors to Brazil, so Brazil could no longer export to China. What we did was we reallocated our portfolio from our Chinese portfolio to Argentina and Uruguay, and this made them stronger. In the meantime, Brazil was approved again for exporting, so we did the opposite. We reallocated the portfolios to Brazil. Meanwhile, when Brazil could not export to China, we have reallocated portfolios from Chile, the Middle East, and especially to the Brazilian operation. If you want to analyze Athena, Minerva, Brazil, this doesn't make much sense.
We have to look at the portfolio of plants, the footprint that we have in South America. We do the best we can with the opportunities that we have. In the last three years, especially in the last two years, we invested a lot in technology, in analytics, so that we can have more predictability, and we can act faster in doing this. What we did with China was a good example. You can see our performance reflects that ability. Just to conclude, the volatility should continue. We have Russia. We have volatility around the world. We are very confident, and we are ready to tap the opportunities and extract value from a very volatile environment. Minerva is unique in terms of geographic diversification. This cannot be replicated by other companies. I understand. Thank you.
Ladies and gentleman, to ask a question please press star one
Morning, Fernando, Edison. Congratulations for the good results. You were very able to adapt to new scenarios. I would like to touch on a more current issue, this conflict between Russia and Ukraine. I would like to understand if there are sanctions, for example, in terms of exporting beef to Russia and there is this imbalance of supply and demand, what could you do with the exports? What is your understanding about the current situation? Paraguay, if I'm not mistaken, is the country that has the most relative exposure to Russia. What is your take in terms of a potential impact? What do you expect if the situation affects global trading more severely.
Thank you for your question. Very good question. The first impact we are going to see in the markets will be an increase in the price of grains. Ukraine is a major producer of grains, and this makes other proteins less competitive. The cost push for poultry and pig is going to be a lot higher. In the northern hemisphere, cattle is raised in confinement, and this makes South America more competitive. As regards embargoes, we don't know what's coming. Our experience is that although there might be embargoes, the humanitarian issues, food and medication, is usually accepted for obvious reasons from embargoes. Medication and food from our experience in the past receive a special treatment. We don't know what that is going to look like. In a more globalized market, there is a greater arbitrage, a greater arbitrage.
If there is a rise in one place because of the embargo, this has an effect in the market as a whole. Also in third place, this raises the alarm in terms of food security, so countries focus on having strategic inventories, strategic stocks. Whenever there is conflict, our experience tells us that countries are more conservative in terms of having inventories to ensure the food security of their people. We are watching the situation from a very close range. I hope the effects won't be too severe, but these are the main effects, increase in the price of grains, the exception whenever there is an embargo, and food security, which becomes even more relevant.
Very clear, Fernando. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Mr. Thiago Bortuluci from Goldman Sachs.
Hello, good morning to all. Congratulations for the results.
I would like to talk about China in terms of the exports. By looking at the first numbers of 2022, I see there is an effect of the resumption. Going forward, there is a debate about how structural these per capita levels are. I would like to hear from you what is your expectation regarding the demand in China, given this comparison basis, which is quite strong, and what can we expect in terms of different geographies this year?
In terms of growth and geographies of origin, we want to increase our footprint in Colombia and Australia. It depends on a correct valuation, but M&A is in the radar. In terms of China, we had a very interesting experience. Unlike other countries, the switch from poultry to beef did not happen regardless of the price.
Beef no longer tracks the price of beef, poultry, and pork. Beef, actually, pork was regarded as a less healthy protein after the swine fever, and this is what justifies the independence of beef. Regardless of the increase in prices, the consumption was strong, stable, and it grew. There is less elasticity for the price of beef. The consumption of beef in China is now inelastic, which is understandable. The middle class is growing and there is more demand, and beef becomes an aspirational product. We are seeing a very positive outlook, which we expect will continue. The per capita consumption in China is half of what it is in Japan. Less than half of what it is in Korea. We believe that the consumption in China will remain stable.
This is what happened with soy in the 1980s. China was the price leader in the market, and we see the same type of movement for beef. China will drive the prices. Consumption continues irrespective of the prices.
Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question please press star one. Ladies and gentlemen, the next questions will be the ones posted on the webcast. I'm going to read an answer. The first one comes from Carlos Herrera. Do you feel any difficulty exporting to Eastern Europe? No, that has not impacted us. No additional difficulty so far. How do you see the costs for 2022? What will the gross margin be like? I talked about the drivers for 2022, and we look in terms of the prices in dollars for export.
The scenario is very good and this could help us expand the gross margin. In terms of costs, specifically in Brazil, there is an important change in the cattle cycle, which could help us increase the gross margin. The levers that we have, the drivers that we have, could allow us to have a gross margin into 2022, which is going to be better than the margin we have in 2021. How can margins be impacted with the increase of inputs after Ukraine? Can these amounts be passed on to clients? As Fernando said, the impact will be on the grains market, and this is good for the cattle market because beef prices go up as well.
Because cattle in South America do not depend on grains, 90% is raised in pastures, this arbitration makes the market even more favorable to us. It tends to be a positive impact for us whenever there is an increase in the inputs for the competing proteins. Mateus Magalhaes asks about an article in the Valor newspaper. Do you have details about what you're going to do in Australia in terms of cattle and beef? We do have a plan that has been communicated to the market. We are thinking about expanding in 2022. We have two sheep, two lamb plants in Australia. We invested $220 million, and we want to increase our operation in Colombia after an acquisition 18 months ago.
In Australia, we should look at assets and maybe make some ad hoc operations which will not compromise leverage, capital structure, and the dividend policy of the company. This will be expansion that will be cherry-picking type in 2022 and 2023, but these expansions should not compromise our debt profile, our leverage, and our dividend policy. Our next question comes from the phone by Mr. Palhares from Bank of America.
Good morning. You talked about the outlook for 2022. The scenario should improve. I would like to explore the issue of taxes. The company has had accumulated loss. What is the potential of using this accumulated loss going forward? If the operations improve, you still have a buffer so that this can revert in profit and cash generation for the company because of the tax impact.
Could you give us a little bit more color about it?
It's very simple. Our balance sheet carries some tax losses from previous years, and this allows us to defer tax assets. As we generate cash and profit, this buffer decreases. We still have some, but if you are worried about the cash basis for income tax, I can tell you that our long-term model and the fact that we generate credits when we export, our effective rate for payment of income tax is never above 20%. I suggest between 15%-20% in your models. As Edison said, you can see that Minerva is the company that exports the most, and this makes us generate tax credits, which has a positive impact in terms of reducing effective cash paid as income tax.
We did some tax planning internally, and this allows us to have a cash flow, a recurrence in our tax credits. This goes very fast in all the countries where we operate, not only in Brazil.
Thank you. That was very clear.
The Q&A session is now ended. I would now like to turn the floor over to Mr. Queiroz for his final remarks.
I would like to end this conference call by highlighting the commitment of every one of our associates throughout the 30 years that we will celebrate in April. Their commitment, their dedication was essential for us to celebrate this 30 years as leaders of beef exporters in Latin America. Minerva has always been known as a company that focuses on risk management, and this has been fundamental for the company to have tools to extract values, even in challenging and volatile scenarios.
We continue to focus on innovation and sustainability. Innovation in terms of how we relate to providers, to suppliers, to clients, how we do business, how we are able to operate in niches, and also sustainability, which is a competitive advantage for a global company such as ours. We begin 2022 with confidence that there will be volatility, but that volatility will create value for us. We always focus on sustainable ethical practices because this is how we can generate value in the long term. We are Minerva Foods, a company committed to the sustainable future of food on the planet. Thank you so much for your interest in our company and we remain available should you have any questions or require further clarification.
Minerva's conference call is now ended. Thank you very much for participating, and have a good day.