U.S. Beef Making Inroads in Brazil, but Challenges Remain

It has been just over one year since U.S. beef returned to the Brazilian market, following a long absence resulting from the December 2003 BSE case. Cheyenne McEndaffer, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) technical services manager, was recently in Brazil and provides an update on how demand for U.S. beef is developing.

McEndaffer notes that U.S. picanha (top sirloin cap) was expected to perform well in Brazil, and demand for this cut has been strong. Brazilian buyers are also interested in U.S. loins, ribs, tri-tips and livers. She joined several USMEF member companies in São Paulo for the APAS Supermarket Show, one of South America's largest food trade shows, to discuss these and other U.S. beef cuts with prospective customers.

McEndaffer explains that Brazil has plant and product label registration requirements that have presented obstacles for some U.S. exporters. Import procedures also vary by state and by port, so she is working to educate U.S. suppliers about these issues to help U.S. beef shipments move more smoothly into the Brazilian market.

If you have questions, please email Joe Schuele or call 303-226-7309.

TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: It's been just over a year since U.S. beef returned to Brazil after a long absence. U.S. Meat Export Federation technical services manager Cheyenne McEndaffer just returned from Brazil and she has an update in this USMEF report:

Cheyenne McEndaffer: Brazil opened for U.S. beef exports in the fall of 2016. So Brazil does have some fairly complicated plant label registration requirements, so we didn't actually ship any products until the spring of 2017. So a year later we are shipping but we only have about three to four approved suppliers. We knew that picanhas as the Brazilians call them or top sirloin caps would be popular and that's proven to be true. So the bulk of muscle cuts we're sending are picanha. We are seeing a few other items move like loins, ribs and some tri-tips and some other cuts. We are sending a few beef livers as well.

Joe Schuele: This visit to the market included a major trade show as well as research on how to help product move more smoothly.

Cheyenne McEndaffer: So our main reason for going to Brazil this month was to attend the APAS supermarket trade show in Sao Paulo. This is one of the largest supermarket trade shows in South America. We had a few members that had booths set up within the U.S. pavilion, so we took an opportunity to meet with their Brazilian offices to discuss some of the challenges bringing product in. We were able to also meet with importers that are currently buying or are interested to buy and learn more about the interest there. Secondly, while we were in-country we wanted to learn more about the import procedures in Brazil. We export to different states in Brazil and different ports so we wanted to learn if there was a national standard or if the import procedures varied by state and what we found out was, yes, there are absolutely state variances, so we tried to make note of those to help our exporters be better informed and prepared.

Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.

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The U.S. Meat Export Federation (www.USMEF.org) is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry. It is funded by USDA; the beef, pork, lamb, corn and soybean checkoff programs, as well as its members representing nine industry sectors: beef/veal producing & feeding, pork producing & feeding, lamb producing & feeding, packing & processing, purveying & trading, oilseeds producing, feedgrains producing, farm organizations and supply & service organizations.