Brazil's Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina, denied that diplomatic relations with China are strained and said that she does not see the continuation of the Chinese ban on Brazilian beef, which has lasted for nearly two months, as a political act.
China’s customs administration said this week that it had approved beef imports from Italy as of October 26th. China relies heavily on imports to meet the growing demand for meat from an increasingly affluent middle class.
Brazil's minister of agriculture and livestock Tereza Cristina has sent a letter to the head of Beijing's Customs office in which she expresses her willingness to discuss the current ban on Brazilian beef exports to China, according to farm media.
Brazil should collect more than 300 million tons of grain by the 2024/25 harvest, three seasons earlier than initially planned, according to new projections by the Ministry of Agriculture. The previous forecast was to reach the target in the 2027/28 cycle.
The states of Sao Paulo and Mato Grosso led Brazilian beef exports in 2020, a record year for the country with total sales of 2,016 million tons. Data from SECEX (the Brazilian foreign-trade secretariat) compiled by ABRAFRIGO (the Brazilian meatpackers association) point out that São Paulo shipments totaled 439,900 tons, or 21.8% of the total, while shipments from Mato Grosso reached 407,700 tons or 20.2% of the total.
Two beef producers from Brazil and one from Argentina have had their exports to China suspended for one week after packaging of their products tested positive for traces of COVID-19, customs said. China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) made the announcement.
Brazilian exports of chicken, pork, and beef continue to be in high demand in 2020, according to data from the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA) and the Brazilian Meat Packers Association (ABRAFRIGO). In September, however, while exports of beef and pork registered a positive performance in relation to the same month of 2019, chicken exports fell 2.3%.
Two months after China said it found residues of Covid-19 in a batch of chicken wings imported from Brazil, Beijing authorities repeated the announcement, but this time in relation to Brazilian beef. Apparently, traces of Covid-19 were detected in beef packaging during an inspection carried out at the Port of Dalian, one of the largest in the country.
Brazilian beef exports including fresh and processed products reached a monthly record of 194,093 tons during July, up 17% from the same month a year ago, according to the Brazilian Slaughterhouse Association (Abrafrigo).
China’s beef imports will fall in the first half of 2020 due to fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, which is complicating the circulation of people and trade globally, Rabobank said in a report released on Thursday.