Delegation Watch the Brazilian Powerhouse Tick

US - A US delegation have recently completed a tour through Brazil and Argentina to discover how the beef, corn and ethanol industries work. In doing so they hope to gain a deeper insight into the market they hope to work and compete with.
calendar icon 8 May 2008
clock icon 2 minute read

The delegation, which consisted of nine U.S. state corn board executives, was led by the United States Meat Export Federation's vice president of industry relations, John Hinners and and Ricardo Vernazza-Paganini, USMEF’s director of Central/South America & Global Strategic Coordination

“These corn organizations are an integral part of USMEF’s membership base,” said Hinners. “They invest more than $1 million annually of their corn checkoff funds into USMEF red meat programs.


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"While Brazil is a global beef powerhouse, we also saw firsthand that it is very committed to ethanol"
United States Meat Export Federation's vice president of industry relations, John Hinners.

“This was a very educational visit for our team,” Hinners added. “While Brazil is a global beef powerhouse, we also saw firsthand that it is very committed to ethanol because, historically, 80 percent of that country’s energy has been imported.”

Based on a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast, Brazil is expected to increase beef exports 27 percent from 2007 to 2017. This equates to an additional 651,000 metric tons (1.43 billion pounds) over the next 10 years with exports totaling 3.05 million metric tons (more than 6.7 billion pounds) in 2017. That is compared to projections that U.S. beef exports will total 1.2 million metric tons (2.64 billion pounds) in 2017, an 88 percent increase over 2007 levels.

The team’s visit to Argentina enabled it to see some of that nation’s meat processing industry, which is composed of more than 500 packing plants, many small and family owned. Since March 2006, the government of Argentina has restricted beef exports to ensure that it can meet domestic beef demand. An annual export quota of 480,000 metric tons was established at the end of 2006, following a 6-month ban, but exports were stalled again earlier this year amid rising prices and renewed concern over domestic availability. This Monday the Argentine government announced the reopening of beef exports but it is not clear whether export permits (ROEs) are being issued at this time.

Argentina currently has the world’s highest per capita beef consumption rate: 154 pounds per person annually. They supplement that with 66 pounds of poultry and 17.4 pounds of pork per person.

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