January 16, 2007

 

Brazil was world's largest beef exporter by volume in 2004

 

 

Brazil became the world's largest beef exporter by volume in 2004, according to the USDA.

 

Disease, sanitary issues at slaughter plants, and the sale of lower-priced cuts account for why it still trails Australia in export value.

 

Incidences of foot-and-mouth disease in some parts of Brazil prevent exports of fresh, chilled and frozen beef to some key markets, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. But the country opened 40 new markets in 2004, selling to 143 countries, according to president of the Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec), Pratini de Moraes. Therefore, losing a few has not had a discernible impact on the numbers, pointed out Steve Kay of "Cattle Buyers Weekly", based in Petaluma, Calif.

 

Besides, the cheaper cost of Brazilian beef attracts orders from Russia, which incidentally is its no. 1 customer, and from the Middle East.

 

It must be noted that Russia and 55 other countries stopped imports from Brazilian states last December after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease but restored trade 10 months later from Mato Grosso, deemed clear of the infection.

 

Despite the embargoes, Brazil's exports from Jan through Sept 2006 rose 17.6 percent in cash value and 3.8 percent in volume compared with a year earlier, per Abiec reports.

 

Internal and external factors explain how Brazil now supplies a quarter of the globe's beef exports.

 

An outbreak of BSE and FMD in Europe hit beef production and consumption in the 1990s. Later, the EU subsidies on beef quality replaced those promoting volume. These factors combined to open big consumer markets like Russia to lower-priced Brazilian beef, according to Abiec.

 

Also, aside from being hormone-free, more than 90 percent of Brazilian cattle are grass-fed and therefore unlikely to contract BSE from tainted feed.

 

Though the US considers grass-fed beef as inferior to the US corn-fed variety, Texas cattle ranchers who have had a taste of Brazilian beef feel otherwise.

 

Brazil should no longer be dismissed as just another Third World country, said McGehee, a Texas rancher.