Thank you, Ignácio. Let's begin on slide six, where I will comment on the results for the first quarter. Starting on the first chart on the left, sales volume was 5.8% lower than the same period of the previous year. Industry slaughter volume was down 8% as a result of tight cattle supplies, further reduced by extended feeding periods. High fat cattle prices relative to feed cost of gain, coupled with high replacement cattle prices, continued to incentivize cattle feeders to extend the feeding period. Net sales were BRL 3.49 billion, an increase of 6.9% versus last year. EBITDA was BRL 10 million, higher than last year, with an EBITDA margin of 0.3%. Beef demand in the quarter continued strong in spite of record prices at retail. Although boxed beef prices have increased, it's not enough to offset higher cattle prices.
Now I'll move to slide seven, where I will talk about U.S. market data. Starting on the left, USDA reported Kansas live cattle prices averaged $238.60 per hundredweight, up 17.9% versus last year. The USDA comprehensive cutout averaged $371.56 per hundredweight, up 14.4%, while the USDA reported drop credit increased 3% to an average of $11.94 per hundredweight. The USDA cutout ratio was 1.56x versus 1.61x last year. As expected, the cyclical decline in cattle supplies, exacerbated by the drought conditions in recent years, has resulted in record prices and reduced capacity utilization across the industry. We continue to be encouraged by strong beef demand and expect this to continue as we move through this part of the cycle. Now I will pass back to Ignácio.
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I'm sorry, I was on mute. Sorry. Regarding the first quarter, as you recall, it started out very tough with cutout values being low relative to the price of cattle. By March, we saw a significant surge in cutout values and that pretty much shored up the first quarter. Some of that carried over into April, softened a little bit as we go into May, but we expect the same thing to happen as we close out the second quarter. We have confidence that our second quarter will be better than the second quarter of last year.
Regarding the outlook for the year, if you think about the supply of cattle and how much it's changed year-over-year and how much capacity has been taken out of the system, we feel confident that margins would be no worse than a year ago. Now when we look at our own operations, we have a much different model with our ownership structure with ranchers, farmers and cattle feeders, and we're all aligned on the same vision to maximize the value of every animal. That really gives us an advantage in the marketplace in terms of offering value-added products. Also, the CapEx that we spent during the good years, we increased our CapEx significantly on projects that would improve our efficiency and increase our capability for value added.
Those two are really coming to fruition now as we go into this part of the cycle. All in all, we think, you know. A lot can happen, but we feel pretty good about it. The other piece of it that we don't know when it will happen, but it will happen, that is the reopening of the border for Mexican cattle coming across. If that happens sometime in the second half of the year, that's certainly gonna have an impact on overall cattle supplies going forward.
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[Non-English content] My first question is about the supply and demand of poultry, both in the domestic and in the export market. How do you see the supply and demand and the expectation for the year? The placements for this year, if it is in line with the increased demand in Brazil and in the export market. In the export market, how do you see the resumption of exports to China, the shipments, prices, et cetera? Last year was a little more complex. In the market in general, in the export market in general, if you see a good demand, how are margins in the main markets, even outside the Halal market that you already talked about? My second question would go to Tim as a follow-up question to the previous one.
If, in your opinion, the removal of import quotas might not be a risk for the balance of supply and demand in the market, especially for some categories. If, in your opinion, the extended drought that we see might delay the recovery of the herd in the U.S.
Hi, Lucas. Let me answer your question. We see very interesting demand for exports, and the domestic market is just the same. Now we are going to focus on exports. In Brazil, between January and April, let me give an example, Brazil exported almost 61,000 tons for China. It's a 19% increase, a 20% price increase. When you look at all markets, you see prices going up when compared to 2024 numbers, almost 20%-22%. This also happened in beef, but also poultry and in pork. Both volumes and prices are on the rise. Looking ahead, we don't see any major changes. There's something I would like to highlight about MBRF. Our controller asked us to adopt a model of industrial complexes to reduce costs and a feedlot model. Almost 25% of our slaughter comes from our own feedlots.
These feedlots helped us when we had decreasing slaughter volumes in Brazil. We ended up growing almost 10%. That was very helpful to adopt these feedlot and industrial complexes to face these shortages. Looking into the future, I'm not giving you any guidance, we see a very favorable environment. The market will keep on demanding more products. The conflicts in the Middle East is now beneficial in that sense, and that benefit will not disappear anytime soon. Why am I saying that? Back in 2024, when we had [Newcastle in Brazil, at that time, BRF made the decision of keeping products in the markets that it operates so that they would not run into any shortages.
With the conflict in the Middle East, which was unexpected, but that caught us at a very good inventory position, we managed to keep on supplying our customers with zero interruptions. Sadia has been in the Gulf since 1973, and BRF benefited from that expertise. We kept on supplying the Middle East. What we did, not only to sell directly to ports that were beyond the Strait of Hormuz, we exported to other ports. Based on that logistics network that had been established since 1973, we distributed our products throughout the Middle East. Our customers acknowledge that. Food security is also present there up until recently. Our food security contract with Saudi Arabia doubled in volume, including now beef products.
We are not only a reliable supplier providing good quality products, we are also regarded as a backbone of food security, which is more and more relevant in a market that will is growing and will only grow. That gives us a lot of confidence as far as Sadia Halal is concerned. When you look at that price increase in the Middle East, this is not something that is only focused on the war per se. It had already started in late 2025, and it's now only stronger now in 2026. We are optimistic. We supplied customers around the clock. Our team is working also around the clock in the Middle East. They're making sure that our products are delivered with safety to our employees, and we are fulfilling our mission to feed the world.
As far as beef is concerned, we have been working to qualify many plants, just like we did in poultry and pork, almost 200 in 2025, 74 now in 2026. We are fully prepared to provide customers with options. Let me highlight something else. I'm sorry I'm taking too long, but this is a very relevant point. In the U.S., we have a great option there because BRF is negotiating its beef products. It also negotiates that through the National Beef platform in the U.S. We are familiar with all the routes. We can pick the best customers, the best destinations within the U.S. When we talk about quota, much has been talked about the Chinese quota. Is it mid-June or early July?
Let me remind you that both in Uruguay and Argentina, in the South America production platform, Uruguay has over 300,000 tons, Argentina at over 500,000, and we can keep supplying our customers through other platforms. At the same time, with all these certifications Brazil has had in recent years of all these industrial plants that are of excellent competitive costs, our feedlots as well, that are very well supplied with very convenient cattle prices, we'll be able to face any challenges that may come our way. We do not see any major hurdles in the near future. Over to you, Ignácio, to talk about placement and supply and demand, and then Tim will answer the other question.
Good morning, Lucas. Some numbers that support our supply and demand that is balanced for poultry. Projects or forecasts for 2026 for poultry is 2%. Other forecasts indicate 2.5%, all of them around this increase in supply. Looking at Brazil, and according to Apinco data, growth in Q1 compared to Q1 2025 is 2.7%. If we compare Q1 2026 with Q4 2025, it's down 2.7% in placement. We see a trend in more production year-over-year, but it's coming down quarter-on-quarter. In terms of hens, BRL 65 million to BRL 63 million head. A 4% increase when compared to 2024. There are other females that will be replaced. This is clearly visible in terms of productivity. Mortality rates remain the same, but hatching numbers are at a lower level, at about 75%.
We see some productivity issues, but it all makes us believe that we may see more supply in 2026, but it's going to be about 2%. This is what the market is forecasting. Just like Miguel said, with exports on the rise. Q1 exports for poultry provided a 5% increase year-over-year. These are very strong data. We remain confident that there should be no imbalance as to both supply and demand for poultry. Over to you now, Tim. Did you hear the question, Tim? Over to you.
Regarding your question on quotas, first I'd like to explain how it works in our plants when we fabricate a carcass. We, as a result of that process, create a lot of trim, and that trim will fall into different buckets, whether it's 50% lean, 75%, 90%, all the way up to 95% lean. What's important to us is to move product up that lean chain because the higher it goes, the lean point value's higher. Bringing in lean trimmings from other countries allows us to upgrade some of the fatter product, fatter trim, and make a product that's more valuable for us and that what is in short supply right now to the consumer. That's why we've got ground beef prices at where they're at.
We don't think it's gonna have a big impact one way or the other, we think that's a good move. Regarding the cattle cycle and the drought, we have not seen any meaningful signs of heifer retention yet. When that does start, you can plan on basically a three-year window of when we would see those cattle in our plants. As we look at it, you know, where we're at in the current cycle, we're up into 2028 or later.
Thank you.
Our next question from Isabella Simonato from Bank of America.
Good morning. Thank you very much. My question has to do with the inventory of grains. There is a concern with higher grain prices driven perhaps by El Niño or more balanced consumption in the U.S. Could you discuss how you are positioned with your feedstock at BRF, and the cost evolution involving other variables like labor and freight that might help us understand the margin for the rest of the year? Thank you.
Good morning, Isabella. There is a lot of discussion on grains due to El Niño and possible crop failures in states like Goiás and others. What we see in our team is always out in the field in the different states of the country.
The outlook for the second crop is very good for corn as a second crop in states like Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. They are expected to have an excellent production in corn as a second crop. Both for corn and beans. For corn as a second crop, we should have between 108 million and 110 million tons. The total crop for the year is 137 million tons, we are above the levels of last year. Even with the El Niño, we do not see corn as a second crop this year being jeopardized. The production in the U.S. is in line with last year at high levels, and Argentina with a super production. In terms of corn supply, even with El Niño, we do not see a drop in grain supply.
As for soybeans, we also estimate more than 180 million tons produced in 2026. The U.S. should also be strong with their production, we should have a record year in terms of soybean production. Therefore, we are not worried in the short term with the grain supply. Even so, since last year, we've been extending our grain portfolio at very attractive levels. Our position sets us apart, I believe. We do have higher inventories since last year.
Not quarter on quarter, but we compared to March last year. Part of it is investment to increase our grain inventory, so we are being aggressive, but we are confident that the supply for this year will remain steady. How should that impact the cost dynamics to your question? The lowest grain consumption should take place in the second half of the year. There is a slight reduction expected for Q2 as compared to Q1. It shouldn't be significant, between 30 and 40 basis points, and then we will reach the floor in terms of the cost of grain. We expect for Q3 and Q4 to have a spike. That's the cost dynamics that we can expect in terms of cost for poultry. On the other hand, cost-wise, we might suffer pressure from logistics cost. We see that mainly in the MENA region.
The cost inflation is not reaching other regions for now, so the cost increase in the Middle East has been transferred to prices, maintaining our profitability. That's very attractive. We continue our efficiency agenda, as you saw. We delivered an SG&A is very in line both at National and South America and BRF. We are working on synergies. We've already captured 20% of what was expected for the year in Q1. We will continue working, and with that, we will try and offset any inflation pressure due to macroeconomic reasons.
That was excellent. Thank you.
Thiago Bortoluci from Goldman Sachs asks the next question. Miguel [Hezer].
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Ignácio, Miguel, Tim, it's always great to talk to you. Let me go back to what Ignácio said during his presentation about the bridge. I recall in the last earnings call we talked about gross debt level, and Ignácio had promised a decrease in gross debt, and we saw that happen. You talked about an increase beyond the seasonality of finished products a little bit in Marfrig, but that inventory is concentrated at BRF. I'd like to understand, where is this inventory located? What was this rationale behind that inventory buildup to think about the monetization and when inventory levels should go back to normal levels? I'll talk about efficiency in my follow-up question.
Good morning. Yes, in terms of working capital, inventory was the key factor in the quarter. The main driver behind that inventory increase was at BRF. As we said, there was a deviation in terms of export prices and fresh products in the domestic market, we made a choice. We focused on exports. That made us increase inventory turnaround. In late February, we had the war in Iran. We had to adopt a longer lead time. Pre-war, we had about 120,000 in the water to the Middle East. At the end of the quarter, we were at 170,000 tons. In itself, that impacted our inventory turnover. We remain confident that these inventory levels will go back to more attractive margins. As you've seen in the Halal numbers, profitability levels are very attractive in the region.
That quota and that continued flow of exports to the region will provide very attractive returns to the company. On the other hand, now focusing on the beef production, we had an increase in the biological assets of about BRL 300 million. This is also part of the working capital. That's because of the feedlot increase. It's a very good quarter. The corn, arroba ratio was very attractive. We sped up that strategy. We expanded the feedlots.
We capped the occupancy rates in our plants at high levels. We provided a 9% increase in volumes in South America, despite the drop of 6% in Brazil, and we managed to increase occupancy rates in our feedlots. We kept on investing in the price increase of beef and also the price increase of the arroba. That, of course, explains the biological assets. How it's going to play out in the future, in the coming quarters? Well, there's a major opportunity ahead of us. BRL 1.1 billion when compared to Q4 in terms of biological assets, when you compare that to March 2025, a year ago, therefore the increase is almost BRL 2 billion. It's a major challenge, albeit a major opportunity to bring those BRL 2 billion back to the company's cash. We made decisions.
We had to make the choice, and we were forced by external events like the war. For the remainder of the year, we expect to bring that inventory level to what we saw about a year ago. It is a challenge. We are at its peak, and now we're only coming down, and we'll be able to reduce inventory till the end of the year.
Thank you. That's very clear. If I may, I have a follow-up question to Miguel. Running the risk of oversimplifying this story, one of the hallmarks of your management is operational efficiency and synergies. We still see today MBRF generating gains, there is a discussion of the efficiency of the merger, something you delivered in Q1. How comfortable are you with the initial guidance of BRL 600 million for the year? If you could speak about those four structures, like supply, where are you more advanced? What are the next opportunities, where could the upside be? I think that would be an important discussion for us to analyze your P&L.
Thiago. First, thank you, it was not my authorship, it was the whole team. Shareholders, the controllers. The program runs very well because everyone was engaged in every geography at every level of the company.
To your comment, we have to separate what is the Efficiency Program and the Synergy Program. The Synergy Program delivered now. Ignácio mentioned it, BRL 126 million in Q1, and we are likely to get over BRL 600 million during 2026, whereas the Operational Efficiency Program delivered BRL 296 million, and we are very encouraged to continue with that process. Ignácio will talk about those boxes or each item as you mentioned. We are encouraged because it's a living program. Both programs, Synergy and Operational Efficiency. You can always do better every day. When you have synergy that was developed over the four years the companies were working together but separately as companies, many of the initiatives that we had when the merger took place in September, all of that will be potentiated over time, as you saw in previous answers.
The possibility of a salesman to sell all proteins as they learn about several proteins and maximize results, it's only natural. It also the same in the industry, in our admin area. In every aspect, we gain with that combined operation with excellent quality. Something I should underscore, it's very nice having two very good companies merging because that brings a lot of knowledge. We are very excited. Opportunities will arise. I'll turn it over to Ignácio so that he can quantify and mention numbers to the different boxes.
BRL 126 million is about 20%. We forecast for the year. On one hand, as far as structure is concerned, it's a more linear process. We did most of it in Q4, and we're going to capture those BRL 231 million linearly throughout the year. This is what actually happened. Most of those BRL 126 million is actually the capture from the corporate structure. In terms of size, in terms of capture intensity, we had the Latin American end of Q1 by unifying commercial and logistics platforms, including beef and BRF. In practical terms, we have the same sales force selling an entire multi-protein portfolio. Now we're including the commercial cubbyhole or segment. Synergy programs are very positive. We are very confident this is the area that can provide more upside, both domestically as well as for the exports markets.
Finally, the supply box. As we said, it will come in later in the year. It's not as linear as the other categories. In terms of qualitative terms, initially we had the structural block and then the supply capture and commercial captures that will be growing throughout the year.
That was very clear, Miguel and Ignácio. Thank you and congratulations on the results.
Let me remind you once again, if you'd like to ask a question in Portuguese, use the Portuguese channel. For questions in English, use the English channel. Guilherme Guttilla from BTG Pactual asks the next question.
Good morning, Miguel and Ignácio. I hope you're all feeling fine. Let me first ask a question about CapEx. It's BRL 1.2 billion, BRL 1.1 billion for the quarter. When we look at it may seem a little lower than the number we had in the last earnings call.
Does that calculation make sense for the year, or should we expect an increase of that amount throughout the year? The other question I have is about let me shift gears a bit. How beneficial is the verticalization for beef in Brazil? Has this been helping in the arroba volatility? That's it. Thank you.
Thank you, Guilherme. I'll start with your second question, and then I'll turn it over to Ignácio for your first question. We're very excited about the combination of proteins due to several aspects. First, you truly obtain impressive synergy. Let me give you a practical example. We have international offices selling all proteins. This makes it easier to control our labor and also for the customer. Some customers buy several proteins, and they go to a single place to get their products. On the other hand, you have the possibility, BRF with 32 plants, Marfrig with two plants in Brazil and two large industries, we can benchmark our operations. That same process takes place in Uruguay with our four plants and in Argentina in three plants.
The constant benchmark comparing best practices and the adoption of best practices is highly beneficial to the business, not only from a cost standpoint, as Ignácio mentioned about SG&A, but also due to our business model. Speaking about Brazil, having the possibility in a year where irrespective of reduction in slaughter volume, and I don't think it's dramatic, it's between 2% and 4%, that slaughter reduction that is expected to happen. With our own feedlot, with our own production in two large plants with high performance, we can place those products and add value to those products because more than 40% of what we produce in Brazil involves branded value-added products. The commercial area in the domestic market, 340,000 customers at MBRF that are now being called upon by one salesperson offering multi several proteins.
Control is also better because obviously when you have a company that sells that volume of products in different geographies, the fact that you use the same process, the same system, the same management, not only does it provide better control, but better cost as well. Both at Marfrig and BRF, now MBRF, we've always been obsessed with comparisons because one plant might be performing better than the other. What should we do to bring everyone to the upper limit? We have an industrial vice president handling the three proteins. We have all areas combined. Once again, I'd like to say that we are very proud of the team that we have. A team that is working together to deliver the results the market and the shareholders expect, and that the controller demands. I turn it over to Ignácio for the second part.
Good morning. As I said before, Q4 was an outlier as far as CapEx is concerned. In Q4, in the Q&A session, you brought that up. You asked me whether the BRL 5.3 billion annualized would make sense for the year. For the year 2026, my answer was affirmative. We're heading in that direction, BRL 1.2 billion in the first quarter. It's a little low when you annualize the number. As I said in a previous answer, these investments are part of the tool we have at our disposal to adjust working capital or cash flow. When we look at the capital structure, capital allocation for the company, it's a little lower. Yes, you're right. In the second quarter, we'll speed up the contribution of the Jeddah plant and some one-off events. Again, it will be about BRL 5 billion.
That's what we have to take into account for the year 2026. We'll make adjustments as needed, looking at the cash generation of the business and looking at the operations overall.
Perfect. Thank you.
Guilherme Palhares from Santander asks the next question. You may go ahead, sir.
Good morning, Miguel, Tim and Ignácio. Thank you for taking my questions. We're talking about geopolitics, markets being opened up, being shut down. What's the net effect of not having additional taxation to the U.S.? Can this help the operation here in Brazil? What's the impact in the U.S.? What would be the net effect of both things happening? That's my first question. The second question is about your take on Europe. We had been talking about the importance of pre-listing. We saw that demand happening in the SECEX numbers. Is it becoming a reality to you? Can this discussion impact this new growth avenue? Thank you.
Guilherme, good morning. Geopolitics just surfaced with the recent news from Europe. It's important to remember how it happened. This discussion didn't start now. It's been a while since Brazil has been adjusting its procedure, providing more information to Europe. We firmly believe it's a matter of proving the good practices that we have in food production. I don't want to go into politics about the Mercosur Agreement, the EU-Mercosur Agreement. I think this is a information request Europe presented. I think the Ministry of Agriculture is fully capable of answering all their questions. There is no scientific discussion. It's just a matter of demonstrating the processes used. We are truly convinced that this will happen, that Brazil will be able to prove what we do. It's a matter of logic. The antibiotics used is the same everywhere in the world.
Europe is just requesting information, and we have until September 2nd to provide that information. On the quota side, the tariff exemption on the U.S. is not concrete yet. If it comes for MBRF, it's going to be very good. Tim has already answered in the previous question that the blend of lean and fat carcass, very good. If you want to add anything, please feel free to do so. Let's see if it will happen. If it doesn't, the U.S. market will keep on demanding, we will keep on providing products to the U.S. with our production. There is another geopolitical point that you didn't specify, but I'd like to take the opportunity and allude to it. That has to do with quotas to China. Brazil is close to reaching that target, that quota, 1.1 million tons.
Less 600,000 tons due to the safeguards process. We expect to have a 3%-4% drop in slaughter in Brazil. Well, what we sell to China will depend on the reduction in production in our specific case. We already have 74 approvals this year. There is a self-offsetting dynamics in the market. Brazil will be reinstated to the list. We are celebrating being back to that market with very good performance. Our brand is still recognized, and there is important demand for it. There is high demand in the market. We said, wherever you look at in the international market, you see very good signs, not only in terms of demand, but demand with a very attractive price, and there is the outlook for sustained demand.
Thank you, Miguel.
If I may have a follow-up question, Ignácio. I still have some trouble with other revenue. If you could try and give us some colors on that others so that we have a bit of predictability. Lastly, I'd like to congratulate your team on the World Cup campaign. It was very beautiful. Thank you very much.
Hello, Guilherme. Yes, it was a very high basis in Q4 because you had that outlier. The normal value would be BRL 350 million. About BRL 170 million is about present value. There are some tariffs, interests, the run rate. There are other variables in the line. It's about BRL 150 million in the quarter. It was slightly above. We had a one-off impact of some financial derivatives. In order to model this line, it should be about BRL 350 million-BRL 400 million. 75% of that amount is present value adjustments, and there's also the hyperinflation adjustments included there.
That was perfect. Thank you. Good morning. Have a great day.
Ricardo Alves from Morgan Stanley is asking the next question.
Good morning, Miguel and Ignácio and Tim. My first question is to Tim. The protein inventory level in the U.S. is at its lowest to date, and demand indicators are higher. There haven't been any spikes in the short run as we expected. Buying beef for deliveries in July, you see a smaller amount. Tim, what have you been hearing in retail channels, food service channels? What's their expectations for this next season to may see some sort of reaction that would be more meaningful as we expected, a more positive outlook? That's my first question to Tim. My second question, you've talked about it, but it's a follow-up of something that Ignácio has already partially answered. That's the liability management issue. If I'm not mistaken, for 2026 it was about BRL 11 billion.
You mentioned it at the very beginning of the call that you had addressed the 2026 bonds issue, which is very good. My question is, what is left to be done for the rest of the year? In other words, what are your short-term priorities as to these deadlines in the coming quarters, Ignácio? Thank you. Thank you once again for taking my questions.
Tim, over to you.
Yes. We feel very good about beef demand as we see it, both on the retail and food service side. Nothing's really different from what it's been. I will say that typically what happens when we get to record price levels on items, there'll be a delay in when the bookings occur, and that's kind of what we saw in March with the big spike in the cutout. They'll let the inventories draw down, and then they'll replenish. We don't expect it'll be any different this time, but overall demand is as expected.
Good morning. In terms of liability management, the maturity that you mentioned is correct. The bulk is short-term debt financing our exports. As we had mentioned in Q4, we had some volumes in 2025. We have a robust cash above the optimum level of the company for the maturity in 2026. We already began Q1 applying part of that cash, and we still have room to reduce a little further and carry a little less cash. Two levels closer than we had in Q1 2025 at about BRL 20 billion. We still have room to reduce our cash level and gross debt. We canceled the bonds in the beginning of the year. We now had another mission in the domestic market, and we settled more than BRL 200 million of bonds that were at 7%, and we raised locally of 250 basis points in cost reduction.
We still have a lot. The average maturity we still see that is low, we can increase that maturity period. We will continue the rest of the year in that attempt trying to extend the maturity of our bonds and try and improve our debt profile. We are comfortable with the current level. We have a robust cash to pay what will mature, but we have some homework to do to extend the average maturity of that debt. I think it is an opportunity we have as a company.
Excellent. Thank you very much, Ignácio and Tim.
Greetings, everyone. I'd like to remind you once again that to ask questions in Portuguese, you should use the Portuguese channel. The same applies to English. Our next question from Igor from Genial Investments. Over to you.
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Good. Yes, we can.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone, once again, for taking my question. We saw that there was pressure in your working capital that affected your operational cash flow. What led to that pressure was your inventory and biological assets consuming BRL 1 billion. Well, you wanted to maintain higher levels of a beef inventory, but also the Iran conflict affected the BRF inventory. I'd like to understand how we should look at the working capital until the end of the year. That inventory build-up might be reversed or releasing some working capital for the second half of the year. And how did the Iran conflict affect your numbers in the first half? If the war continues, your working capital will remain under pressure, or will you be able to release some of your inventory over the year?
Good morning, Igor. As I mentioned before, that's right. The pressure of investments, working capital, inventory, biological assets was BRL 1.1 billion. BRL 800 million of inventory, the rest of biological assets. The drivers are different. In biological assets, that was the consequence of an increase of our feedlot volumes and the arroba price increases. As to the inventory levels, and in line with what you said, this is a direct consequence, first, of our focus on exports, focusing more on export because of better prices of in natura protein and, of course, the results of the geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East and the logistics implications. As I said before, the conflict was BRL 120 million. After the conflict, that volume went up to BRL 170 million. So there's a major inventory level shifts, especially because of the conflict in the Middle East.
As to the outlook for the coming quarters, again, as I said, when you compare to March 2025, we're carrying an additional BRL 2 billion in inventory. Part of it because of a decision made by the company to invest in inventory that could be profitable, just like the inventory directed to the Middle East, as I said, and part of it due to one-off effects that resulted in that change. We remain very confident that these, when we compare to March 2025, this might come it down, might come down gradually. We understand it's a challenge for the 2026, but gradually we'll be reducing inventory levels. For the rest of the year, we'll be able to capture and bring inventory levels down.
That was very clear. Thank you.
The last question comes from Victor Modanese from UBS. You may ask the question now, sir.
Good morning. The more strategic questions were addressed. My question is to José Ignácio. There's a BRL 500 million reduction in the withdrawn risk from suppliers. Is that due to specific demand in Q1, or is it part of a company strategy to reduce that instrument in the effort to deleverage the company? That's my question.
Good morning. It was nothing strategic done by the company. It was due to product demand, really. It was not strategic on our part. It was a market context and demand for the products. We use that tool as a tool to loyalize suppliers in our capital structure. Depending on the demand, we may use it more or less.
Clear. Thank you very much.
Well, the Q&A session of MBRF's earnings call is closed. We thank you very much for your participation. I hope you have an excellent day.