Brazil was the world leader in beef exports to China, with shipments of 7,526 million dollars, according to data from the Ministry of Economy.

On a global scale, China is the largest importer of this product with a surprising growth from only 242 million dollars in 2012 to 17,084 million dollars in 2022.

Proportionally, in the same time frame of that decade, China went from representing 1.4% of world imports of frozen beef at the beginning, to 45.3% at the end, according to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO).

In part, Brazil’s frozen beef exports were boosted in 2022 by the end of China’s ban on Brazilian beef imports in December 2021.

But with broader hindsight, these Brazilian external sales of frozen beef grew at double-digit year-on-year rates since 2016. Their upside in 2022 was 44 percent.

In volume terms, these Brazilian exports to the Chinese market were 1.1 million tons.

Beef exports to China

Considering all commodities, China is the main market for Brazil’s external sales, with a total of $89.719 billion in shipments to that nation in 2022.

To take as a reference angle: Brazil’s second largest export market last year was the United States, with 37,644 million dollars.

Brazil exports to the Chinese market mainly soybeans, iron ores, petroleum, certain chemical wood pulps and sugar.

Other outstanding exporters of frozen beef to China in 2022 were: Argentina (2,699 million dollars), Uruguay (1,843 million), the United States (1,487 million) and New Zealand (1,315 million).

Last March, Brazil received the news that China reopened the market for Brazilian beef exports.

Stocks had been suspended since February 23 due to the occurrence of an isolated case of the atypical form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Brazil, as foreseen in the bilateral sanitary protocol signed in 2015.