U.S. Beef Shipments to Brazil Expected to Begin Soon

U.S. beef has been absent from the Brazilian market for 13 years, but this could soon change. Cheyenne McEndaffer, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) technical services manager, explains that U.S. beef has not been accepted by Brazil since the December 2003 BSE case. Until recently, Brazil’s beef exports to the United States had been limited to cooked and processed products, due to foot-and-mouth disease concerns. In August, the two countries announced that they would resume trade for fresh and frozen beef cuts.

Brazil shipped small volumes of frozen beef to the United States in September, October and November – a combined total of about 500 metric tons – but U.S. exports to Brazil have yet to resume. This is due to additional regulatory obstacles, including a label registration requirement and the need for U.S. slaughter plants to be relisted as eligible for Brazil. But these steps are now nearing completion, and initial shipments of U.S. beef should reach Brazil in early 2017.

McEndaffer adds that while Brazil is one of the world’s largest beef-producing and beef-exporting countries, there are definitely opportunities for certain U.S. beef cuts in the Brazilian market. The picanha (pronounced pick-ahn-ya) – which is more commonly known in the U.S. as the sirloin cap or coulotte – is very popular in Brazil and buyers are excited to gain access to the U.S. version of this cut. Brazil could also be a strong market for U.S. beef livers, and she expects to see demand for U.S. short ribs, chuck flaps, tri-tips, striploins, skirts and chuck eye rolls as well.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: The U.S. beef industry is close to sending its first exports to Brazil in 13 years. Cheyenne McEndaffer, U.S. Meat Export Federation manager of technical services, has more details in this USMEF Report.

Cheyenne McEndaffer: We’ve been shut out of the Brazilian market since our first case of BSE, as well as the Brazilians have anxiously waiting to ship beef to the U.S., where they have been banned due to foot and mouth disease concerns. So in August of this year, the U.S. and Brazil jointly announced that both countries would open their doors to fresh or non-processed beef from both countries. Brazil did start shipping sooner, but we’ve had a few more details to work out, one of which was a unique label requirement that Brazil has. And those details were finally posted last week. So with that, any plants that are approved to ship to Brazil can now start working on the label registration, and we’re hoping to start seeing product land in the country in early 2017.

Joe Schuele: Despite being a large beef producing country, Brazil has a definite need for certain beef cuts. .

Cheyenne McEndaffer: That’s a common question we get because Brazil is one of the world’s largest beef producer and exporter. And even though Brazil does produce some grain-finished, British breed high quality cattle of their own, it’s very, very limited, so that’s where we really see an opportunity to supplement that with high quality, grain-finished U.S. beef. We do know that the picanha will be incredibly popular, it’s the top sirloin cap, or the coulotte, which is the common name. The Brazilians like how much fat cover we have on our grain-finished coulotte. We’re also expecting some demand for U.S. livers, which is good because we are always looking for other liver markets. Over the past few months we’ve also heard of interest for other cuts that we didn’t expect, like short ribs, chuck flaps, trip tips, strip loin, outside and inside skirts and chuck eye roll.

Joe Schuele: For more on this and other trade issues, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.