Brazil imports surge in first quarter

Brazilian beef exports to the EU jumped to 35,146t in the first quarter of this year compared with 27,727t in the first quarter last year. Operation Weak Flesh no doubt affected trade for the last two weeks of March last year as imports from Brazil had been at 34,652t in the first quarter of 2016.

Argentina, meanwhile, continues to rebuild its export business to the EU, with 13,681t coming into the EU in quarter one 2018. This compares with 11,216t in the same period last year, which was also an increase on quarter one 2016, when Argentina’s exports to the EU were 9,803t.

Overall EU imports of beef reached 80,389t compared with 71,162 in the first quarter of 2017, with the South American Mercosur countries the main suppliers.

Exports

EU exports in the first quarter were 165,968t, which is running behind quarter 1 2017 when 176,613t of beef were exported. Turkey is the main export market for beef currently, taking 24,077t in this period compared to 7,114t in the same period in 2017. Hong Kong is the next most important export market taking 18,366t of which approximately one-third came from Ireland.

Trade

The latest round of trade negotiations between the EU and Mercosur concluded in Uruguay last Friday and the next round is scheduled for Brussels in July. The EU is reporting that progress was made on several issues such as services and exchanges were constructive overall. They identified a number of areas that are the sticking points including: cars and car parts, geographical indications, maritime transport and dairy. Interestingly, there was no mention of beef.

Irish exports

Meanwhile, the CSO released the latest Irish export figures for April this week which show an overall drop of 13,000t compared with the first quarter last year. This reflects a lower kill overall and the destinations remain broadly the same with the UK taking as much as all the rest combined.

One market that has started to show improvement for Irish exporters is the USA. Up to last week, 1,128t of Irish beef and offal had arrived in the USA, according to USDA import data. This represents a 40% increase on the 804t in the same period of 2017 and while the volume is still not large it is still a substantial increase.