Fresh beef exports from Brazil for the month of August stood at just under 145,000t – a 17% increase on the same month last year. This is a new record for Brazilian beef shipments in a single month, surpassing the previous record of 138,000t set in May 2007.

Despite the prolonged spell of hot weather, milk collections from dairy farms in the UK for the month of July stood at 1.23bn litres, which is a 1.5% increase on the same month last year. UK milk production for the first seven months of 2018 stands at 8.7bn litres, which is in line with 2017.

China’s ministry for agriculture announced this week the detection of the fifth case of the deadly African swine fever (ASF) on one of the country’s pig farms in less than a month. More than 25,000 pigs have been slaughtered this year in China in a bid to contain the disease.

US beef exports for the month of July are set to be close to 90,000t, which would be similar to June shipments. This brings US beef exports for the first seven months of 2018 (Jan-Jul) to just under 595,000t, which is 14% ahead of the same period last year.