BRAZIL
BRAZIL TARGETS LIVE CATTLE TRADE FROM IRELAND AND AUSTRALIA.
Live cattle exports from Brazil last year totaled US$660 million and this figure will be doubled this year, according to Ronald Aitkin who heads investor relations at Minerva in San Paulo.
Export to Lebanon and Venezuela are already above forecasts for the last three months of 2008 and current orders will carry the exports through until April.
The cattle going to Venezuela are heavily subsidized by their government in order to create employment in the Venezuela meat and leather industries, whilst the cattle for Lebanon are for Ritual Halal slaughter.
Negotiations with Libya and Brazil over the last months, have culminated in orders for live cattle and for beef , Indonesia has now granted Brazil permission to export beef and live cattle .Indonesia imported 68,000 tones of beef last year and over half a million live cattle from Australia.
The Indonesian market is very attractive to Brazil who now have cattle livestock vessels, capable of carrying 17,000 head of cattle.
Rodrigo Solana of the Brazilian Arab Chamber of Commerce said " Brazilian beef has been sold to Libya for a number of years through brokers, we now wish to control this trade ourselves as we have the logistics and the livestock".
The EU restrictions on Brazilian beef, means sufficient numbers of suitable cattle are available for Lebanon. A market normally supplied by Ireland. While Libya is normally supplied by Ireland, Australia supplies Indonesia.
