Source:
https://scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3214641/china-agrees-resume-imports-brazilian-beef-authorises-four-new-plants
World/ Americas

China agrees to resume imports of Brazilian beef, authorises four new plants

  • Sales of Brazilian beef to China were voluntarily halted by Brazilian authorities on February 23 following the discovery of an atypical case of mad cow disease
  • The resumption of beef trade comes a day after Brazil’s agriculture minister arrived in Beijing ahead of a visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday
A customer checks the beef section of a supermarket in Curitiba, Brazil. China on Thursday agreed to resume imports of Brazilian beef aged under 30 months. Photo: AFP

China has agreed to immediately resume imports of Brazilian beef aged under 30 months, according to a statement released by China’s General Administration of Customs on Thursday.

Sales of Brazilian beef to China were voluntarily halted by Brazilian authorities on February 23, following the discovery of an atypical case of mad cow disease.

The resumption of trade comes a day after Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro arrived in Beijing ahead of a visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (right) with agriculture and livestock minister Carlos Favaro. Photo: AFP
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (right) with agriculture and livestock minister Carlos Favaro. Photo: AFP

Datagro Pecuaria, an agribusiness consultancy, separately said an additional four Brazilian slaughterhouses were authorised on Thursday by Beijing to export beef into China.

Citing the GACC, the consultancy said three belong to privately owned companies and one is operated by listed JBS SA.

This is the first time since 2019 that China has issued new export permits for Brazilian beef packers, Datagro Pecuaria said on its website.

The Brazilian agriculture ministry did not have an immediate comment.

Before Thursday’s four new permits, a total of 37 plants in the country were authorised to sell beef to China, according to Abiec, a Brazilian beef lobby. Now the number is 41.

Lula will visit China accompanied by a delegation of 240 business representatives, including 90 from the agriculture sector.

Shares in Brazilian beef packer Minerva were up 3.3 per cent in early afternoon trade, making it the leading gainer of the benchmark Bovespa index. Rival JBS, with a much more diversified export base, rose 0.5 per cent.

Brazil also aims to renegotiate sanitary protocols under which a single mad cow case triggers an export ban for the whole country. Beef producers in Brazil were losing up to US$25 million per day with the embargo in place.

Some 62 per cent of Brazil’s beef exports went to China last year.

According to Datagro, the GACC on Thursday also lifted a ban on a poultry plant operated by BRF SA enforced in December 2021.