China has lifted its ban on Brazilian beef, as announced late last week by the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff.

An atypical BSE case detected in the Brazilian state of Parana in December 2012 resulted in restrictions on Brazilian beef across important exports markets, including China and Saudi Arabia.

According to MAPA (Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply), beef shipments to Hong Kong are expected to ease with the access regained to the Chinese market.

Hong Kong has become one of the major destinations for Brazilian beef with shipments in 2013 totalling 217,032 tonnes, and up 11 percent in the first half on 2014, to 114,700t.

Previous to the ban, Brazilian beef exports China increased substantially, from 2680t in 2011 to 16,630t in 2012 – with frozen beef making up more than 99pc of the total.

Brazil has currently eight plants approved to exports to China and it is likely to have more nine approved in the near future.

Besides China, Peru and Iran also lifted the ban on Brazilian beef while the Saudi Arabian ban remains in place.

Source: MLA