March 24, 2008

 

Brazil looking to export pork to blue-ear-infected China


 

An escalating pork consumption and a serious blue ear disease infection in China could very well boost chances of the country allowing Brazilian pork imports.

 

Back in October 2007, livestock sanitation officials from Brazil and China had signed the minutes of a protocol that marks the first step towards inspections and certification of Brazilian meatpackers for pork exports to China.

 

This protocol is scheduled for signing by the two countries' vice-presidents in the second half of 2008, according to the Brazilian Pork Packaging and Export Association (ABIPECS).

 

Even so, China had already asked for quotes from several Brazilian exporters last year.

 

Experts of the pork sector do not think that the signing of the protocol will guarantee anything, as Brazilian beef and poultry shipments to China have not yet begun even though China had signed a beef and poultry export protocol with Brazil four years ago.

 

Despite so, the experts acknowledged the importance of the pork protocol, and the Brazilian market is optimistic about the opening of the Chinese market as China is suffering from hog shortage due to the rampaging blue ear disease, also known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV). The disease has killed 25 to 50 percent of pigs that are 30, 65 and 105 days old, and sows are also giving birth to dead piglets that are infected with the virus.

 

China's annual pork consumption is 50 million tonnes and the disease has threatened to put China's self-sufficiency in pork at risk. Although China exported a surplus of 450,000 tonnes of pork in 2007, it also imported about 80,000 tonnes of pork from the US and EU.

 

The crisis in China could create opportunities for Brazil's major pork producers Sadia and Perdigao. Last year, Perdigao said it has positive expectations of the Chinese market and that it could open up.

 

However, the sector's experts also warned that there are uncertainties about negotiations with China which wants to protect its small farmers, and Brazilian entrepreneurs have complained about the slow pace of negotiations with China.

 

Brazil's pork industry is currently also looking for other large foreign markets, such as Mexico and Japan, which are the world's third and first largest pork importers. This diversification would reduce Brazil's pork export dependence on Russia, which has banned Brazilian pork exports due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana in October 2005. However, Russia had since lifted the ban on several Brazilian states, although exports from those states require Russian inspection.

 

Russia currently consumes about 50 percent of Brazil's pork exports, but the figure was over 60 percent before the ban.

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