Negotiations to open the Japanese market to Brazilian beef are currently focused on enabling suppliers from southern Brazil, which has caused discomfort in companies from other regions of the country, also interested in accessing consumers from a highly profitable market, according to various sources.
Brazil, the world’s largest exporter of beef, has been trying for two decades to enter the Japanese market, without success. An agreement would give Japan an alternative to its leading suppliers, the United States and Australia, at a time when American tariffs are remodeling global food trade.
The negotiations gained momentum after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s state visit to Japan in March, one of the largest beef importers in the world.
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However, the current focus of negotiations, which privileges states responsible for less than 4% of the volume of Brazilian exports, worries refrigerators of large producing states, such as Sao Paulo, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Pará.
These states accounted for almost 60% of the total Brazilian beef exports, or 1.72 million tons last year.
A memorandum of the Brazilian government, issued after a technical visit by Japanese authorities in June, revealed that Brasilia answered a questionnaire for the importation of beef from southern Brazil, naming Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina.
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These three states were declared free of foot -and -mouth disease, a contagious viral disease in cattle before other states, although Brazil obtained in May the national status of disease without vaccination by the World Animal Health Organization. The last outbreak of the disease in the country was in 2006, according to the government.
The Ministry of Agriculture did not immediately comment on negotiations with Japan.
A source of the Brazilian government, which requested anonymity, confirmed that negotiations are occurring by region and that initially Brazil does not plan to negotiate permissions beyond the three southern states.
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Representatives of the beef sector, including exporters, told Reuters to expect more states to be included.
“We know that negotiations are difficult,” said Paulo Mustfaga, president of Abrafrigo, who represents Marfrig and small beef exporters. “Now the surprise for us is that this is going to approve only three states.”
Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries said it was aware of Brazil’s status as free of foot -and -mouth disease and is “conducting a risk assessment according to Japanese procedures” before issuing any export permission to Brazilian refrigerators without providing further details.
