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During the coronavirus epidemic, in the midst of a disruption in supply to the U.S. market, Marfrig Global Foods began selling new beef from Brazil to the United States.
The United States allowed such sales to resume in February after lifting a ban in place since 2017 over health concerns. The first shipments should occur this month, Marfrig CEO Miguel Gularte said in an interview on Friday (April 24, 2020) with Reuters.
An increase in U.S. beef purchases was first identified at Marfrig’s units in Argentina and Uruguay.
“In the last 15 days this has been noticed in Brazil,” Gularte said, without detailing volumes.
With the reopening of the U.S. market to fresh beef from Brazil, the largest global exporter of protein, the company already had a strategy of resuming shipments to the United States, Gularte said. But demand for Brazilian beef picked up after recent U.S. meat plant closures during the coronavirus epidemic.
Marfrig, which owns Missouri-based National Beef [NBEEF.UL], temporarily suspended production at its Iowa beef plant after workers tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.
The company does not plan to suspend production at any other U.S. plants, he said.
National Beef’s total slaughtering capacity in the United States is 13,000 head per day, with 1,100 at the Iowa plant, which has resumed production, Gularte said. Find more...
Source: Online/SZK
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