Brasília - Between now and mid-2005, Brazil should begin exporting fresh beef to the United States and unlock new markets for this Brazilian product, especially among Asian countries. According to the President of the National Confederation of Agriculture's Permanent National Forum on Beef Cattle, Antenor Nogueira, the success in negotiations with the United States will help open new markets where American sanitary analyses are used to determine meat imports. This is the case, for example, with Japan, which only buys from countries that export to the United States.

The next step, according to Nogueira, will be to overcome the tariff barriers that bar access by Brazilian beef to the so-called "Asian tigers," which are currently the biggest purchasers of meat in the world. "There are still barriers that rule out Brazilian access to these markets," he lamented. This year Brazil is expected to export 1.6 million tons of beef, for which it will earn over US$ 2 billion.

Nogueira explained that, even though it is the world's largest beef exporter, Brazil is still excluded from 60% of the world's consumer market. "We export to 104 countries that represent 40% of the world market. We still don't participate in 60% of the market." He assured that Brazil possesses the chief prerequisites to conquer new markets and triple its participation - quality, punctuality, and international recognition.

"We have a natural meat that is practically organic. A meat produced in pastures, withiout antibiotics, without hormones, and with greater nutritional safety. And this is what the world consumer desires," he pointed out. "Brazil's climate, with well-defined periods of rain and drought, is another advantage enjoyed by the national cattle herd, because it keeps various types of diseases, infections, and other epidemics from spreading in our territory," Nogueira explained.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Maurício Cardoso
Translator: David Silberstein
09/06/2004