Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture said on Monday (Jul 5) that Brazil's processed beef shipments to the US should restart shortly.

Officials from Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture will go to the US this week to present an action plan to their US counterparts to harmonise requirements for testing meat shipments.

If this plan is accepted, Brazil's shipments of processed beef could quickly restart, said Francisco Jardim, secretary of Brazil's agricultural defense department.

In May, US authorities rejected a shipment of beef from Brazil's JBS SA, which is the world's largest beef producer, after detecting high levels of Invermectin, an antiparasitic medicine in a shipment of processed beef.

Brazil's Agriculture Ministry shortly afterwards voluntarily suspended all exports of Brazilian processed beef to the US until the two countries could review health standards.

The suspension has caused some US$50 million in lost processed beef sales to the US in June, said Otavio Cancado, president of Brazil's beef export association. An agreement could be made "this week or next week," he added.

Brazil is the world's No.1 exporter of beef and about 6% of export sales go to the US.