The ministry also confirmed that Russia has halted imports from Para state after the discovery of a BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) case there.

Thailand, Iran and Jordan “have temporarily suspended beef imports from all over Brazil and Russia has introduced an embargo on beef exported from Para,” the ministry said. In addition, Brazil has suspended beef exports to China to fulfill terms of a trade agreement.

There is only one meatpacking plant in Para authorized to sell beef products to Russia, it added.

Brazil is investigating a case of BSE on a nine-year old male animal from Para state. Discovery of the case, communicated on Feb. 20, triggered a self-imposed ban on Brazilian beef sales to China.

The animal was destroyed, and tests are pending to determine whether it developed the classic form of the disease or was an atypical case, which can occur spontaneously in all cattle populations and does not depend on ingestion of prion-contaminated feed.

Classic BSE is considered more serious because it involves contamination by the prion protein, and could trigger wide trade bans.

Russia’s suspension had been previously reported by local newspaper Valor Economico, which said the ban was enforced on Wednesday and covers live animals, fresh and processed meat and byproducts.

Andrey Yurkov, Russia’s agricultural attaché in Brazil, declined to say whether the Russian ban may be lifted if the Brazilian government confirms the case is atypical, according to the Valor report.

Brazilian beef trade groups Abiec and Abrafrigo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ana Mano and Nayara Figueiredo.

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ASF forced China to cull millions of hogs and increase imports.

China continued to be Brazil’s top pork buyer in March, but acquired 41.8 per cent less than in the same month last year. The Chinese market was the destination of 34,100 tonnes, out of the total of 91,400 tonnes Brazil exported.

China’s pork imports from all sources fell by 64 per cent in the first three months of 2022, compared to the same period last year, to 420,000 tonnes, according to data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs.

“China would at some point restore production,” said Ricardo Santin, president of Brazilian pork and poultry lobby group ABPA. “The government helped and they resumed production earlier than the world thought it would.”

China produced 15.61 million tonnes of pork in the first three months of 2022, up 14 per cent from a year earlier. This marked the country’s biggest quarterly production in more than three years, according to Chinese government data.

Despite the drop in exports in March to China, the president of ABPA — a group that represents meatpackers such as JBS and BRF — said he saw a silver lining for Brazil’s prospects.

According to Santin, China’s first-quarter output data reflects higher production, but also a higher slaughtering of sows, a measure designed to save on high feed costs but that can affect the hog supply in future with fewer breeding animals.

IHS Markit analyst Aedson Pereira said China’s hog herd grew with massive government investment and use of some of the same production techniques as in Brazil.

“Chinese production has outgrown local demand,” he said. “Imports have fallen and along with them the global price of pork.”

— Nayara Figueiredo is a Reuters commodities reporter in Sao Paulo; writing by Ana Mano.

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Federal biomedical institute Fiocruz, which is investigating the possibility of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) said the two patients are suspected of having the “sporadic” form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease not related to beef consumption.

On Sept. 4, Brazil confirmed two cases of what it called “atypical” BSE in animals, triggering a suspension of beef exports to China under a standing bilateral agreement.

At the time, the agriculture ministry stressed that the two cases identified in meat plants in the states of Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais had generated spontaneously and were not related to contaminated feed, as in ‘classic’ BSE.

On Thursday, the ministry said the two cases of suspected Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans had “no relation with consumption of beef or subproducts contaminated with (BSE).”

Earlier, municipal health authorities in the city of Rio said Fiocruz had flagged two cases of “prion disease,” which can occur spontaneously in elderly patients or by eating contaminated beef in younger populations. Creutzfeldt-Jakob is the most common form of prion disease in humans.

The municipal health authorities said the two cases identified in residents of the Rio suburbs had been referred to state health authorities, without giving the patients’ ages.

Questions about those cases could further delay a Chinese decision on lifting the Brazilian beef ban, which has stranded dozens of shipments, rerouted many others and weighed on beef exports from Latin America’s largest country.

Brazil’s major Brazilian beef exporters, JBS, Minerva and Marfrig Global Foods, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nayara Figueiredo in Sao Paulo and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; writing by Ana Mano.

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Brazil said on Saturday it had confirmed two cases of ‘atypical’ bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in different states, and was suspending beef exports to China as part of a prior agreement on the issue with its top buyer.

Despite Brazil’s dominant 40 per cent share of China’s beef imports, prices had not moved by Monday and some importers were still looking for deals.

“We’re still buying, factories have to keep up their stocks,” said Grace Gao, general manager at Dalian-based importer Goldrich International.

In Brazil, the fourth-largest beef processor Frigol said Monday it would furlough workers at one of its plants for 15 days, with a source with knowledge of the matter telling Reuters the move was in response to the export suspension.

Frigol’s press office said the furloughs were due to a seasonal slowdown in Israeli demand and declined to comment on a possible connection to China exports. The company did not immediately give details about how many were furloughed.

‘Atypical’ BSE is considered to be of lower risk than the classical form of the disease, as it occurs naturally and only sporadically in older cattle. ‘Classical’ BSE is transmitted by contaminated feed and has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

Brazil previously suspended exports for 10 days in 2019 after reporting an ‘atypical’ case.

“I assume the Chinese government won’t ban imports,” said Pan Chenjun, senior analyst at Rabobank. “Brazil is so important.”

China’s customs authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brazil has shipped more than 500,000 tonnes of beef to China from January to July this year, or 38 per cent of China’s total imports, Chinese customs data show, putting it far ahead of No. 2 supplier Argentina, which supplied just under 300,000 tonnes.

Global beef supplies are very tight and prices are already at record levels, added another large Chinese beef buyer.

“If this only lasts 15 days, there will be no impact at all. Brazil is still producing, and it takes two months to ship meat here anyway,” he added, declining to be identified because he is not permitted to talk to media.

While China’s imports of pork are falling because of a recovery in domestic supply, Chinese demand for beef continues to grow.

Ireland, a smaller beef supplier to China, reported a case of ‘atypical’ BSE in May last year. It has not yet been able to resume exports.

— Reporting for Reuters by Dominique Patton in Beijing and Nayara Figueiredo in Sao Paulo.

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For full-year 2020 its profit was 4.6 billion reais, 87 per cent of which came in the fourth quarter.

In the final quarter of 2020, when food sales are traditionally strong, JBS registered net revenue of 76 billion reais (C$16.65 billion), a 33 per cent rise from the fourth quarter in 2019, with growth in local currency terms registered across all business units.

For full-year 2020, JBS boosted net revenue by 32 per cent to 270 billion reais (C$59.16 billion). In the same filing, JBS said it plans to pay one real per share in dividends in 2021, corresponding to a record 2.5 billion reais.

JBS said in the U.S., where the company derives most of its revenue, beef industry fundamentals remained solid, helping overall financial performance.

Even as JBS grappled with production cuts in the first half of the year related to the coronavirus pandemic, cattle availability and consumer demand bolstered U.S. beef operations, it said.

JBS USA’s beef unit, whose Canadian holdings include the company’s beef slaughter and packing plant at Brooks, Alta. and a case-ready meat plant in Calgary, invested in “increasing exposure to higher value-added products” in 2020.

In Canada, its investments included last summer’s purchase of the Vantage Foods case-ready meat and seafood plant at Belleville, Ont., which serves as an exclusive supplier to the Metro retail grocery chain.

In beef exports, JBS USA said its highlight was “the volume and mix of products exported from the United States and Canada to China, which became the fifth and third largest market for the company’s beef exports, respectively, in 2020.”

On the other hand, the U.S. pork division, which also suffered production cuts amid the pandemic, had a five percentage-point fall in EBITDA margins to 9.1 per cent in the fourth quarter. And as cattle availability remained low in Australia, JBS reported a sharp reduction of its beef production and margins there last year.

China continues as a main sales driver for JBS’s operations in both Brazil and the United States. Overall, the Asian country is the destination of 31 per cent of JBS’s meat exports which totaled $13.6 billion in 2020.

Last year, JBS accounted for more than 50 per cent of total beef exports to China from the United States. At the same time, revenue from exports to China and Hong Kong from JBS’s Brazil beef division rose by 60 per cent in the fourth quarter.

— Reporting for Reuetrs by Ana Mano and Nayara Figueiredo in Sao Paulo. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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“We know it is very difficult to achieve this,” CEO Gilberto Tomazoni said in an interview. “It will challenge the entire company.”

JBS said in 2019 that its own operations produce an estimated 4.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions from industrial facilities and 1.6 million tonnes from energy use.

But some 90 per cent of overall JBS emissions come from its supply chain, Tomazoni said, without giving a specific figure. He said traditional cattle rearing emits 40-45 tonnes of carbon equivalent per tonne of meat produced.

Brazil is home to one of world’s largest commercial herds, and new cattle ranches are a major driver of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, an essential bulwark against catastrophic climate change.

Methane, a natural byproduct of digestion in cows and other ruminants, is also a major source of greenhouse emissions. About a third of greenhouse emissions from agricultural production, excluding land-use change, comes from methane released by cows, according to the Washington-based World Resources Institute.

The 2040 target announced by JBS comes amid a growing backlash from consumers and investors threatening to boycott or divest from companies contributing to deforestation in Brazil.

As part of its plan, JBS vowed to invest US$1 billion over the next decade in innovations aimed at reducing carbon emissions in its global operations. The commitment also involves a pledge to pay for reforestation and forest restoration initiatives.

The company has also promised to stop processing cattle coming from illegally deforested areas in the Amazon by 2025 and in other Brazilian biomes by 2030. Those targets also reflect when JBS will be able to track both its direct suppliers and their suppliers.

In the long run, JBS said the adoption of intensive cattle farming will replace the sprawling ranches that now dominate Brazil’s current approach, helping to cut emissions.

JBS said also that it will be using 100 per cent renewable energy worldwide by 2040, while executives’ variable pay will be measured against the delivery of environmental goals.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ana Mano and Nayara Figueiredo.

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