UBABEF said Brazil last year was the world's third largest producer of chicken meat, behind the United States with 16.7 million tons and China with 13.2 million. It added that South America's largest nation was expected to finish in second place this year ahead of China. The union highlighted the fact that 69.8 percent of the output went to the domestic market, while the remaining 30.2 percent went to exports. Brazil last year remained the world's largest chicken exporter, supplying 40.2 percent of the global market, with revenue up 21.2 percent to $6.8 billion, it added. "The poultry production results in 2011 are the result of a genuine revolution in the Brazilian poultry industry over the past decades," said UBABEF executive president Francisco Turra. The Middle East remained the main market for Brazilian chicken last year, taking in 1.4 million tons, up 3.5 percent, worth $2.68 billion, up 20.1 percent. Asia finished second with 1.1 million tons, up 13.4 percent, and with a 36.8 percent increase in value to $2.62 billion. Africa was third, importing 498,000 tons, up 0.5 percent, for a value of $691 million, up 13.3 percent. UBABEF said that in view of the global economic uncertainty, the industry was forecasting an increase of only two percent in both production and exports for 2012.