AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Set to Fight for Leadership in Beef Exports

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 2000 (IPS) - The certification of more than half of Brazil’s cattle as free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) with vaccination could set South America’s giant in a position to become the world’s top exporter of beef in four years.

Agriculture minister Marcus Pratini de Moraes, commenting on the International Office of Epizootics’ (OIE) decision to add six Brazilian states to the area declared free of FMD with vaccination, said annual sales of beef, pork and chicken could climb to five billion dollars.

Until the OIE adopted its decision last Wednesday, only two southern states in Brazil had been recognised as free of FMD with vaccination.

But now, with the certification of a large part of central and western Brazil as free of the disease, more than half of the country’s beef – estimated at 160 million head of cattle – can now be exported to industrialised countries.

The two states declared free of FMD with vaccination two years ago could be certified as free of the disease without the need of vaccination next year, and the other six states in four years, pending rigorous controls.

Beef free of FMD without vaccination is acceptable to the world’s strictest markets, like Japan.

Once the eight states are certified as free of FMD without vaccination, Brazil would be set to become the world’s top exporter of beef, by doubling its sales to Europe, said Pratini de Moraes. To do that, it would have to surpass Australia and the United States, the two biggest exporters today.

Brazil is already one of the world’s leading exporters of pork and chicken.

Thanks to the new OIE certification, Brazil’s sales of beef should increase by 10 to 15 percent this year, say industry experts.

Agriculture secretary of the state of Sao Paulo, Joao Carlos Meirelles, takes an even more upbeat view, however, predicting a 20 percent rise in sales. This year Brazil will export 650,000 tonnes of beef – up from last year’s 550,000 tonnes – which could push revenues up to one billion dollars, he said.

An increase in output will be added to the opening of new markets for Brazilian beef.

If exports do not rise, the sector will face serious difficulties due to an expected surplus of 200,000 to 300,000 tonnes of beef next year, said University of Sao Paulo researcher Guilherme Días, a former secretary of agricultural policy.

Today, prices on the glutted domestic market have sunk below 20 dollars per “arroba” (15 kgs) of beef, which has bolstered the competitiveness of local beef on the international market, even with respect to Argentina’s famous steaks.

Nevertheless, beef from Argentina and Uruguay – two of Brazil’s partners in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc – outdoes the Brazilian product in terms of quality. Uruguay was declared free of FMD without vaccination several years ago, and Argentina won that status at last week’s OIE meeting.

Argentina’s newfound certification will allow it to recover lost ground in the most demanding – and highest paying – markets like Japan, South Korea and Mexico.

Argentina, with 49 million head of cattle, exported 322,300 tonnes of beef last year.

Brazil, meanwhile, will have to continue vaccinating its cattle in the eight states declared free of FMD with vaccination, while stepping up its efforts to eliminate the disease in the remaining 20 states.

One of those states is Minas Gerais, only one part of which was declared free of FMD. The eastern state has the second largest number of cattle, nearly 20 million head.

Another major ranching state is Mato Grosso do Sul, where pockets of FMD have appeared, possibly seeping in from across the border with Paraguay (the fourth member of Mercosur).

In northern and northeastern Brazil, poor regions with a less developed ranching sector, it is more difficult to combat the disease, which has plagued Brazil for 130 years and has been fought seriously for less than three decades.

The ministry of agriculture is negotiating agreements on health standards and export quotas with the European Union (EU) and the United States, in a bid to conquer the two big markets.

In the United States, Brazil hopes to sell beef from the two southern states certified free of FMD with vaccination two years ago, which should be declared free of the disease without vaccination next year.

The EU, which purchases 70 percent of Brazil’s beef exports, has been more flexible in its sanitary requirements, said deputy foreign minister Luiz de Seixas Correa, who headed the Brazilian delegation that took part in the meeting in Brussels last week.

An accord presently being negotiated would ease restrictions on Brazilian farm exports to the EU, in exchange for permission for European ships to fish in Brazil’s exclusive economic zone in the Atlantic ocean.

The Brazilian government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, aware that it will have to boost the promotion of its beef abroad, plans to help set up Brazilian “churrascarías” – restaurants for steak- lovers similar to Argentine or Uruguayan “parrillas” – abroad.

Several “churrascarías”, set up by Brazilians from the southern states, are already successfully operating in New York, Miami, Berlin, Lisbon and Taipei.