Sales to China of Brazilian chicken meat could rise by more than half if Beijing grants export approvals to seven more factories in the South American nation, financial news agency Bloomberg reported.

The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, also known as APEX, said a delegation from China’s quarantine office had finished a 10-day mission in Brazil earlier this month to inspect potential new suppliers of meat, Bloomberg added.

The Chinese delegation would analyse samples from four meatpacking plants, before Beijing decided whether to grant export approvals to those plants and three other suppliers, the Brazilian Animal Protein Association was quoted as saying. A decision might take between 30 and 60 days, it added.

Export approvals for seven extra suppliers could push Brazilian chicken meat sales to China to US$800 million from US$518 million last year, APEX said. According to Bloomberg, Brazil already supplies about half of China’s chicken meat imports.

“If the bird ‘flu problem gets worse in the [United States], Brazil has the capacity to meet global demand,” Alberto Bicca, an international business analyst with APEX told Bloomberg. He was referring to avian influenza cases detected in the U.S. since December, which are reported to have affected millions of birds there.