How can the Amazon gain new markets beyond China, the U.S. and the EU?

Brazilian cattle ranching needs to improve animal-health and environmental controls to access new markets, experts say

Cattle from the Amazon already reach major buyers in the international market, such as China, the United States and the European Union (EU), but these trade relationships are unstable and the sector still has room to grow, especially if it focuses on increasing productivity without new deforestation. That is the assessment of Camila Trigueiro, a researcher at the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon), who notes that the Brazilian federal government has been drawing closer to other beef-importing countries, such as Japan and South Korea.

According to Trigueiro, the U.S. market has been unstable since the USA imposed increased tariffs on Brazilian goods, and China’s import quota for Brazil has already been exhausted this year. As a result, there is concern within the sector that Brazil could end up losing market share, which is driving a move to diversify buyer options. “They are potentially interesting markets for Brazil that we still do not access for several reasons,” she adds.

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One factor is that the United States and Australia have consolidated their positions over the years as beef suppliers to Japan and South Korea , meeting those countries’ requirements and adapting to their internal bureaucratic procedures. “South Korea has a free trade agreement with the United States , which ends up facilitating trade between them in terms of price,” she says. As a result, Japan and South Korea already associate cattle from Australia and the United States with safety, reliability and animal health, a level of credibility that Brazil would still have to earn.

One of the criteria these countries had required for some time was that the exporting country be free of Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) without vaccination, something Brazil achieved only recently. “Now it is possible to seek access to these more demanding markets, but a common dynamic is that when these countries obtain certification, they almost immediately begin implementing individual animal identification. Because if there is a disease outbreak, they can trace it very quickly and identify where the problem is,” she explains.

But Brazil is not there yet.