Paraguay Officially Above Mexico in Beef Exports
PARAGUAY – Beef export increases have left Paraguay the world’s eighth largest beef exporter, overtaking Mexico and Argentina.Beef shipments reached 251,000 tons from Paraguay last year, above Mexico (200,000 tons) and Argentina (164,000 tons), reports ABC news.
This was announced at the ‘lectures Bovina’ where Alexandre Mendonca de Barros, analyst at the Superior Council of Agribusiness of the Federation of Industries of Sao Paulo, delivered a talk on the Paraguay beef outlook.
Mr de Barros plotted the South American region as an ideal food production nation, taking into account water stress, global temperatures, geographical relief and subsequent biomass production potential.
These points were laid out in his talk ‘Vision of the meat value chains’ in which he highlighted the importance of agriculture to Latin American.
South American cattle numbers, totalling 314 million head of cattle were broken down for those attending the lectures. Brazil is the largest cattle country with 197 million followed by Argentina, (49 million), Colombia (31 million), Paraguay (13 million), Venezuela (12 million) and Uruguay (11 million).
Further expansion is possible if Chilean markets opportunities are exploited through the SITRAP (Paraguay Traceability System).
The industry is currently waiting on veterinary authority agreement over the suitability of beef from Paraguay into Chile. Carlos Pedretti, Head of the breeding records office at director of the Paraguay Traceability System said that Chile is looking to authorise beef imports from other authorities meaning Paraguayan beef could lose access to this market.
TheCattleSite News Desk