June 5, 2007

Brazil's beef exports to Russia, EU continue to rise

Irish meat group Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) says Brazilian exports of fresh and frozen beef to date have climbed to 455,000 tonnes, due to lenient implementation of foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD) restrictions that hindered Brazilian beef shipments in 2005 and 2006.

LMC said the dwindling of EU beef exports due to reduction of beef export refunds have allowed Brazil to further expand its global presence amid the FMD ban.  The biggest market for Brazilian beef is Russia which accounts for 35 percent and has risen to 118 percent this year to 157,000 tonnes.

The rapid expansion of markets in Russia and North Africa has reduced EU's imports of Brazilian beef despite a 3 percent increase to 67,500 tonnes to date.

In 2005 almost a quarter of Brazilian exports went to the EU, but fell to 15 percent in 2007.