Brazil reopened its market to United States beef in the fall of 2016. However, only three to four United States meat suppliers have been able to ship meat products into the country. A U.S. Meat Export Federation spokesperson explains the challenges United States meat producers face in this South American market.
AUDIO: Cheyenne McEndaffer, U.S. Meat Export Federation
Cheyenne McEndaffer serves the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) as technical services manager. McEndaffer recently traveled to Sao Paulo, Brazil for the APAS Supermarket Show with several USMEF member companies. She says USMEF members companies met with Brazilian offices to discuss interest in U.S. meat exports, as well as import challenges.
?Brazil opened for U.S. beef exports in the fall of 2016. Brazil does have some fairly complicated product label registration requirements, so we didn?t ship any products until the spring of 2017. A year later, we are shipping, but we only have about three to four approved suppliers,? McEndaffer said.
McEndaffer says USMEF representatives further examined different import procedures, to get a better understanding of what requirements U.S. meat exporters need to follow moving forward.
?We export to different states in Brazil and different ports, so we wanted to learn if there was a national standard or if the import procedures varied by state,? McEndaffer said. ?And what we found out was that – yes, there are state variances. We tried to make note of those to help our exporters to be better informed and prepared.?
Brazil currently imports picanha, or top sirloin cap. McEndaffer says Brazilian buyers also expressed interest in United States loins, tri-tips and livers.
