Brazil sets record for beef exports despite China's embargo

Brazil exported 187 thousand tons of beef in September, the highest volume ever shipped in a month, according to data from Secex (Foreign Trade Department) today (1), amid uncertainties with lots sent to China despite a temporary suspension of purchases by the Asian country.

Main destination of Brazilian meat, China suspended its imports on September 4, as a protocol measure after confirmation of two atypical cases of “mad cow disease”, one in Mato Grosso and the other in Minas Gerais. Still, batches that were ready for shipment at the port were sent after this date, helping to boost the month’s data.

had been certified until the day of notification (from China) the export process continued. There was no interruption, what was contracted was already at the port, the flow continued”, said the general coordinator of Statistics at the Ministry of Economy, Saulo Castro.

The Undersecretary of Intelligence and Foreign Trade Statistics, Herlon Brandão, also commented that one of the factors that could explain the surge in meat exports is the existence of stocks at the port, which were shipped in September, and a small delay of up to eight days in the accounting of data from shipment.

“We use the moment when the carrier declares that the goods have shipped… this can happen up to eight days in relation to what it actually was. He (exporter) has eight days to declare that the goods were placed inside the ship”, he said. When contacted, the associations representing the industry, Abiec and Abrafrigo, did not comment on the matter.

Details about the buyers of the product sent in September will only be made available by Secex in the coming days, however, StoneX’s livestock risk management consultant Caio Toledo said that currently there is no other major player that can replace China with acquisitions of such expressive volumes.

“What we see in The market is that China, in the last two months, was at an extremely strong pace of purchases… because it is going through a process of increasing inventories thinking about the end of the Chinese year,” he said, citing the influence of the exchange rate on the competitiveness of the product Brazilian, despite high prices.

The agribusiness consultant at Itaú BBA, Cesar Castro Alves, warned that there is a probability of a “knock” in the data in October, as a result of the suspension Chinese. He also stated that the chance that the volumes were sent at high levels to Hong Kong, for later shipment to China, as a triangulation, is remote. “Some of this cross-channel contamination still exists, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.”

Source: FORBES