First shipment of U.S beef arrives in Brazil after 13-year pause

May 05, 2017

Brazilian market officially reopened on August 1, 2016

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

The first shipment of U.S. beef arrived in Brazil after the South American country ended the ban from 2003.

Brazil closed its borders to U.S. beef imports over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Since then, Brazil imported most of its beef from Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

Renewed access to the Brazilian market is a big step in the right direction for American beef producers, said recently-confirmed Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

Diplomat Ricardo Zuniga with U.S. beef imports in Brazil.
Photo: USDA

“With Brazil’s large market reopened to the United States, U.S. beef exports are poised for new growth,” he said in a release. “I look forward to Brazilians getting the opportunity to eat delicious American beef because once they taste it, they’ll want more of it.”

But there are some conditions, according to a recent equivalence system established by both countries.

The U.S. can only export beef, beef products and beef offals sourced from cattle slaughtered and process on or after July 27, 2016. Any U.S. beef that has undergone radiation treatment is still ineligible for export to Brazil.

Though the first U.S. shipment only arrived on May 4, Brazil re-opened access on August 1, 2016.

“The Brazilian market offers excellent long-term potential for U.S. beef exporters,” then Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a release.

Agricultural exports to Brazil in 2016 totaled $899 million, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

Wheat ($316 million), prepared food ($54 million), dairy products ($47 million), cotton ($47 million), and feeds & fodders ($42 million) were the top items the U.S. exported to Brazil.

Agricultural imports from Brazil totaled $3.3 billion in 2016.

Coffee, unroasted ($1.1 billion), fruit and vegetable juices ($323 million), tobacco ($296 million), red meats ($288 million), and raw beet and cane sugar ($132 million) were the top ag items the U.S. imported from Brazil.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.