Contagem Accounts for 38% of Brazil’s Pão de Queijo Production
Contagem produced about 101,000 tonnes of pão de queijo in 2025, accounting for an estimated 38% of Brazil’s output. The Minas Gerais cluster combines 32 manufacturers, a large dairy supply base and road access to domestic and export markets.
A cluster producing 101,000 tonnes
Contagem, in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region, has become Brazil’s largest concentration of pão de queijo manufacturing. The municipality accounts for about 38% of national production, according to a city estimate based on data from the Brazilian Food Industry Association, as reported by Diário do Comércio. Minas Gerais as a whole produces roughly two-thirds of the country’s total.
A survey by Contagem’s Municipal Department of Economic Development identified 32 manufacturers in the city. Together, they produced about 101,000 tonnes in 2025 and support more than 1,600 direct jobs. State revenue data supplied by the municipality show that the city’s ten largest manufacturers generated more than R$ 36 million in state goods and services tax between 2019 and 2023.
The cluster includes Forno de Minas, Xodó de Minas, Seu Ninico and Tia Tânia. Their products are sold across Brazil and exported to markets including Argentina, Portugal, Mexico and the United States. This mix of nationwide distribution and international sales gives Contagem’s frozen-food manufacturers a broader customer base than the Minas Gerais regional market alone.
Manufacturers add capacity
Xodó de Minas, founded in Contagem in 2007, is investing approximately R$ 30 million to expand its factory. The company expects daily output capacity to rise from 75 tonnes to about 125 tonnes from October, an increase of roughly 65%. The expansion is taking place on a 9,000-square-metre site in the Cidade Industrial district.
Xodó employs 235 people directly and about 80 indirectly, mainly in logistics. Traditional pão de queijo generates around 80% of its sales, while its portfolio also includes three-cheese biscuits, sticks, horseshoe-shaped products and filled versions. The company moved its operations to Cidade Industrial at the end of 2024, citing better transport access for workers.
Seu Ninico employs approximately 100 people and mainly serves southern and southeastern Brazil, as well as the Federal District and Bahia. Forno de Minas has operated its industrial structure in Contagem for more than 35 years, employs about 700 people and is in the first phase of a factory expansion project. Part of McCain Foods since 2023, it exports to 14 countries, began production in Portugal at the end of last year and is preparing to start manufacturing in the United States.
Dairy supply and logistics underpin growth
The industrial base is closely connected to Minas Gerais’ milk and cheese sector. According to the state dairy industry union Silemg, Minas Gerais produced about 9.78 billion litres of milk in 2025, with 48.5% of inspected volume used to make cheese. The state has 775 dairy establishments and approximately 134,000 producers supplying milk to industry.
IBGE data show that Minas Gerais represented 23.9% of Brazil’s inspected raw-milk purchases in 2025, the largest share among the states. Contagem also sits at the junction of the BR-040 and BR-381 highways, the Belo Horizonte ring road and Via Expressa. That combination of nearby dairy inputs, manufacturing capacity and road connections supports deliveries to retailers across Brazil and shipments to foreign markets. The wider Minas Gerais food industry generated R$ 164.5 billion in 2025, while the state had more than 33,000 bakery and confectionery businesses.
