MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil resumes fresh beef exports to China, 124,400 tons in March

Brazil automatically suspended beef exports to the Chinese market as of February 23 due to the discovery of an atypical case of BSE, better known as “mad cow disease.”

Brazilian exports of fresh beef reached 124,440 tons in March, a drop of 26.4% year-on-year, amid the self-imposed suspension of protein shipments to China that was only lifted at the end of last month, according to data from the federal government this month.

Government data shows revenue from exports of beef protein fell from almost one billion US dollars in March 2022 to US$ 598.79 million, accompanied by an 18.5% drop in the average price per ton.

Following a protocol signed by the two countries, Brazil automatically suspended beef exports to the Chinese market as of February 23 due to the detection of an atypical case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), known as “mad cow disease.”

The Chinese government allowed purchases to resume almost 30 days after the self-embargo began. This decision was made during a visit to China by the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro.

Preliminary government data confirmed that exporters kept shipping cargo at the beginning of March, but it wasn’t enough to offset the total impact measured at the end of the month.

Also according to the government’s foreign trade data, soybean exports totaled 13.27 million tons last month, outperforming the volume of 12.2 million sent abroad in March 2022, given a record harvest in the 2022/23 season.

The amount of corn sold internationally increased to 1.33 million tons from 14.28 thousand tons a year earlier due to solid external demand for the oilseed and increased supply.

Likewise revenue from exports of fresh, frozen pork meat in the 23 working days of March outstripped the figures seen in the same month last year by more than 30%, as well as from a month ago.

Pork exports brought in US$ 231,765,681 in revenue as of the end of March, which was 33% more than what was made in March 2022 (US$ 174,257,651). Also, 95,304.095 tons were shipped, which is 17.24% more in volume than the 81,288.375 tons registered in March of last year.

There was an increase of 34.6% in revenue from February to March, from US$ 172,135,000 to US$ 231,765,681. The 95,304,095 tons exported in March represented a 36.5% increase in volume compared to the 69,800,000 tons shipped in February.

The average volume exported per day was 4,143.656 tons, up 12.1% from March 2022 and 2.4% down from the previous week. The price per ton paid, US$ 2,431,854, is 13.4% dearer than in March last year.