China agrees to resume imports Brazilian beef, authorizes four new plants

The resumption of trade comes a day after Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro arrived in Beijing ahead of a visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday. Datagro Pecuaria, an agribusiness consultancy, separately said an additional four Brazilian slaughterhouses were authorized on Thursday by Beijing to export beef into China.

China has agreed to immediately resume imports of Brazilian beef aged under 30 months, according to a statement released by China's General Administration of Customs on Thursday.

Sales of Brazilian beef to China were voluntarily halted by Brazilian authorities on Feb. 23, following the discovery of an atypical case of mad cow disease. The resumption of trade comes a day after Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro arrived in Beijing ahead of a visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday.

Datagro Pecuaria, an agribusiness consultancy, separately said an additional four Brazilian slaughterhouses were authorized on Thursday by Beijing to export beef into China. Citing the GACC, the consultancy said three belong to privately-owned companies and one is operated by listed JBS SA .

This is the first time since 2019 that China has issued new export permits for Brazilian beef-packers, Datagro Pecuaria said on its website. The Brazilian agriculture ministry did not have an immediate comment.

Before Thursday's four new permits, a total of 37 plants in the country were authorized to sell beef to China, according to Abiec, a Brazilian beef lobby. Now the number is 41. Lula will visit China accompanied by a delegation of 240 business representatives, including 90 from the agriculture sector.

Shares in Brazilian beefpacker Minerva were up 3.3% in early afternoon trade, making it the leading gainer of the benchmark Bovespa index. Rival JBS, with a much more diversified export base, rose 0.5%. Brazil also aims to renegotiate sanitary protocols under which a single mad cow case triggers an export ban for the whole country. Beef producers in Brazil were losing up to $25 million per day with the embargo in place.

Some 62% of Brazil's beef exports went to China last year. According to Datagro, the GACC on Thursday also lifted a ban on a poultry plant operated by BRF SA enforced in December 2021.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)