Brazilian trade mission to visit China to promote beef exports

BRASILIA - A Brazilian trade mission will visit China in June to promote beef exports, an official said.

The mission, including representatives from Brazil's main producer organizations, is being coordinated by the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and will visit Shanghai and Beijing on June 9-12.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Ana Paula Repezza, manager of Apex-Brasil's International Business Facilitation, said that the visit was aimed at regaining Chinese consumers' trust in Brazilian beef.

"We hope we can get back into the market and show the Chinese consumer all health requirements have been met and Brazilian meat is a distinguished high quality product. Our livestock is not raised on hormones and its production is almost organic," she said.

"We were increasingly exploring the Chinese beef market and gaining market share when there was an unconfirmed case of mad cow disease in Brazil. This gave rise to the embargo which began in December 2012 and ended last week," added Repezza.

During these two years, Brazilian meat lost out on business but above all, its image was affected.

Brazil is the third largest meat producer and the first largest exporter in the world. It sells to markets in the European Union, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Hormones and chemicals are not used when rearing the livestock used for Brazilian meat. This allows the meat to have specific characteristics and to be known as "green cattle." Only with a few rare exceptions, the animals are not kept in confinement as the stress caused would lead to a loss in meat quality, said Repezza.

"We want to show the quality of our products because we know the Chinese have a high level of meat consumption with the highest quality and with sustainability requirements. Brazilian meat is one of the most highly valued in the world," she said.

The first step is try to sell 8 freezers of beef and one of poultry to China. This was what the Latin American country previously exported to the Asian country before the embargo was put in place.

In the second phase, the Brazilian government hopes to be authorized to gradually increase to a total of 26 freezer units in a process which would involve both countries' health agencies.

"We will organize a series of meetings with Chinese meat consumers and buyers associations straight away to re-establish this bond of trust and introduce Brazil as an alternative meat provider for the Chinese market," said the official.