According to data released recently by the Secretariat for Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services of Brazil (SECEX/MDIC), the export volume of Brazilian beef hit a new record high in June this year. The cumulative beef exports in the first half of the year are second only to the same period last year, ranking second, and China is still the largest customer of Brazilian beef.

farmnews, a Brazilian website, reported on July 9 that Brazil exported 192,700 tons of beef in June this year, surpassing 152,400 tons in the same period of 2022 and setting a new record, but sales fell. In the first six months of this year, Brazil's cumulative beef exports were 882,600 tons, down 4.9 percent from the first half of last year (927,900 tons), and exports fell even more.

The situation is related to price changes in the international market. According to SECEX/MDIC, the average price of Brazilian beef on the international market in June 2023 was $5.05 per kg, lower than the delivery price in June 2022 and 2021 ($6.83 per kg and $5.18 per kg, respectively). But it is higher than June delivery prices for commodities between 2016 and 2020.

Of Brazil's major beef export destinations in the first half of this year, only Chile and Saudi Arabia increased their trade volume compared to the same period last year.

China imported $2.6 billion worth of beef from Brazil in the first six months of this year, down 29 percent from a year earlier, data showed. Trade between the United States and Egypt also declined. To date, China remains the leader among Brazil's major beef buyers, with trade more than 10 times greater than that of Brazil's second-largest customer, the United States ($225.6 million).

SECEX/MDIC estimates that the Brazilian beef export market will continue to grow in the second half of the year, helping to maintain previously issued expectations of rising beef prices in the off-season.