April 4, 2008

 

China to open beef market to Brazil on conditions

 

 

China announced it is willing to open its market to Brazilian beef, given that Brazil removes trade barriers on imports of Chinese poultry.

 

Brazil, the world's leading chicken exporter, is self-sufficient in meeting domestic demand for chicken.

 

A few weeks ago, Brazil animal health agents found problems with animal sanitation at Chinese chicken companies, the local Estado newswire reported.

 

Nevertheless, China wants to tap Brazil's food markets.

 

Brazil's beef exporters have been itching to get into China for years, with its large population, rising incomes and changing food habits.

 

According to Estado, the Brazilian government appears willing to open its market to Chinese cooked chicken in order to open up the beef market.

 

China recognizes Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and the Amazon state of Rondonia as free of foot-and-mouth disease and permitted to export.

 

Currently, not one Brazilian beef exporter has been certified to export to China despite at least two visits from Chinese food safety officials over the last two years.

 

Brazil beef companies have been waiting for that market to open, but there have been no signs of an opening in the near term.

 

Brazil's hesitations are related to bird flu as China has had five bird flu outbreaks in poultry this year, according to a March 21 report by the Xinhua news agency of China.

 

Brazil has not had foot-and-mouth disease since October 2005, though Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Rondonia have not had a case of the disease for a much longer period.

 

All are very small ranching states by Brazilian standards with less than 10 million heads of cattle, compared with major ranching states like Mato Grosso do Sul, which has around 22 million cattle.

 

Brazil exports beef and chicken to Hong Kong. However, the report said that some groups were falsifying Brazilian food company brands from Sadia SA (SDA) and Perdigao SA (PDA) in mainland China.

 

Both companies are two of Brazil's leading chicken meat exporters.