BRAZIL-BEEF EXPORTS DOWN IN JANUARY.
Brazil’s beef exports in January declined 34% from the
same period last year to 81,812 metric tons due to a fall-off in demand in key
markets like Russia, the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association, or Abiec, said
Thursday.
Beef exports should remain steady in 2009 compared to 2008, Abiec said.
Brazil shipped 2.1 million tons of beef internationally last year.
For Brazil to maintain 2008 volume levels, Abiec said prices of fresh frozen
beef in the international market will have to remain relatively stable.
Abiec said it sees opportunities for Brazilian beef traders to export to
traditional markets in the European Union, and is hoping that E.U. policy
makers will be less "protectionist" in their tariff policies on Brazilian beef.
Any barriers could hurt local beef companies’ chances of recovering from recent
export declines.
Otavio Cancado, executive director of Abiec, said beef companies aren’t
seeing a marked decline in demand as of late.
"This isn’t a crisis in demand," he said, adding that Russia imported much
less in January than it did the same time a year ago, but bought more than it
did in December.
Russia imported 16,000 tons in January, compared with 10,000 tons of
Brazilian beef in December.