July 12, 2006

Egypt the top importer of Brazilian beef for June
 

Egypt's imports of Brazilian beef hit US$ 51.77 million in June, increasing 98.8 percent on-year and making it the top importer of Brazilian beef, according to information released Monday (Jul 10) by the Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec).

Brazilian beef shipments to Egypt amounted to 39,750 tonnes, which represented an increase of 82.7 percent.

Overall Brazilian beef exports totaled US$ 351.6 million in June, 15 percent more than in the same period in 2005. A total of 221,900 tonnes of beef were shipped in the month, a drop of 2.8 percent on-year

Algeria and Saudi Arabia were among the top ten importers of Brazilian beef, with imported value worth US$18.86 million (15.29 percent increase) and US$ 9.18 million (111.9 percent increase) respectively.

The value of Brazilian beef exports broke previous records in the first half of the year. External sales amounted to US$ 1.72 billion, a 16-percent-increase on-year. Shipments totaled 1.15 million tonnes, a 0.54 percent increase on-year.

Brazilian beef currently accounts for nearly a third of world beef exports, according to president of Abiec, Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes.

Of the 7.394 million tonnes of beef traded each year, 2.3 million are exported from Brazil.

The top three markets for Brazilian beef during the first semester was Russia, with imports worth US$ 212.6 million at 148,800 tonnes, Egypt, with imports worth US$175.4 million at 141,000 tonnes, and the Netherlands, with US$105.8 million at 28,800 tonnes.