Since 2000, the export volume of Brazilian beef has continued to rise. In 2000, the export volume of Beef was 358,000 tons, with a total value of 830 million DOLLARS. The average export price of beef was 2335 dollars/ton (domestic ex-factory price in Brazil). Beef exports in 2017 were 1.479 million tons, totaling 6.09 billion US dollars, with an average price of 4,119 US dollars per ton. From January to October 2018, the total amount of exported beef was 1.331 million tons, and the total amount of exported beef was 5.37 billion US dollars, with an average price of 4,034 US dollars per ton. Compared with the same period in January-October of 2018, the volume of beef exported to China, the EU, Egypt and other markets increased significantly. But Brazil has been denied access to Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Indonesia and Taiwan.







The carcass segmentation criteria for Brazilian beef are as follows:

First area is located in the back, dominated by hip loin (rump), hips (rump cap), pork loin cover (beef) (tenderloin), cold (ridge) (striploin), eye meat (rib eye) of meat, in areas such as the weight is about 26 kg, about 15% of body weight, accounting for 33% of the price of carcass, mainly exported to the Netherlands, China, China Hong Kong and other countries and regions;

The second area is mainly located in the hind leg, which is composed of eye round, Rump tail, topside, flat and other parts of meat. The weight is about 43kg, accounting for 25% of the carcass weight and 25% of the carcass price. It is mainly exported to China, Hong Kong, Italy and other countries and regions.

The third area is located in the front legs, dominated by the neck meat (meat) neck shoulders (shoulder), (neck), plate tendon (oyster blade), tender shoulder meat (chili, shoulder fillet) chuck (an), chest meat (brisket point end) of meat, in areas such as the weight is about 52 kg, about 29% of body weight, accounting for 24% of the price of carcass, mainly exported to Russia, Egypt, Iran and other countries and regions.

Fourth region, mainly in the abdomen, the ribs (ribs), skirt (matambre) meat, beef brisket, flank steak), before the tendon (shin), after tendon (shank), thin skirt meat (thin skirt) and other parts of meat, about weight is 56 kg, about 31% of body weight, accounting for 18% of the price of carcass, mainly exported to Hong Kong, China, Russia, China and other countries and regions.



Brazilian beef export





Brazilian beef exports to China have also continued to grow. In 2000, the volume of beef exported to China was 631 tons, with a total export value of us $557,000, with an average price of US $882 per ton. In 2017, Brazil exported 211,000 tons of beef to the Chinese market, with a total export volume of US $930 million and an average price of US $4,396 / ton. From January to October 2018, the export volume of beef to China was 259,000 tons, with a total export volume of us $1.20 billion, with an average price of US $4,630 / ton.

Among Brazil's beef exports to China, 211,000 tons of frozen meat in 2017 accounted for 99.94% of the total. 6 tons of canned and other processed products, accounting for 0.01%; Viscera and other products 116 tons, accounting for 0.05%. From January to October 2018, 258,647 tons of frozen meat, accounting for 99.97%; Other categories 66 tons, accounting for 0.03%.

The Chinese market is very important to Brazil's beef export, accounting for an increasing proportion year by year. Brazil's beef exports to China accounted for 7.0% of its total exports in 2015, 11.8% in 2016, 13.9% in 2017, and 19.4% in January-October 2018. From the perspective of The Chinese market, the proportion of Brazilian beef is also increasing year by year. In 2015, Brazil accounted for the third place among China's total beef imports. In 2016, Brazil surpassed Australia and Uruguay to become the largest beef importer in China. In 2017, 29.1% of the beef imported by China was from Uruguay, 27.6% from Brazil, 16.8% from Australia and 12.1% from Argentina.





Improve productivity





To achieve such a high beef yield, Brazil has increased beef yield by improving production efficiency (including feeding level, feeding management, proper feed nutrition, pasture management, etc.), breeding varieties and utilizing crossbreeding advantages.

An important measure of efficiency is to increase the cattle feed ratio, which in Brazil is expressed in terms of cattle feed ratio (@/ ha/year). From 1990 to 2015, the beef feed ratio increased from 1.65 to 4, and the yield of Brazilian beef increased by 1.5 times. If we still use the beef cattle raising technology in the 1990s, to produce 1.5 times the yield of beef in 1990 requires at least 23,000 to 25,000 hectares of forage resources, and the current use is 16,400 hectares.

Future development of Brazilian beef cattle industry

Sustainability studies suggest that over the next 10 years, beef cattle will be grazed in more pastures, with an increase of 12 to 20 million hectares compared with today, followed by an 8-14 percent increase in beef production.