Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture announced on February 23rd that all beef exports to China will be suspended until further notice due to a confirmed case of mad cow disease. The first case was confirmed in the northern Brazilian state of Pará and involved "a nine-year-old male animal from a small property" (Brann, 2023). Soon, Minister Carlos Fávaro assured that “the matter is being handled with total transparency to ensure Brazilian and global consumers the recognized quality of our meat."
Whether this unknown infection is a classic or rare case of the disease, Brazil still has to voluntarily suspend its beef exports to China due to a requirement of the bilateral agreement signed in 2015. Valor Internacional states that this has the possibility of being an atypical case, meaning that, since the animal develops the disease naturally, there's no risk of spreading the disease to other animals or humans.
Nevertheless, "The Asian country was the main importer of Brazilian protein in 2022 and the destination of 53.3% of shipments" (Florentino, Walendorff; 2023). Thus, "in anticipation of the self-imposed ban, shares in the slaughterhouses traded on B3 plummeted on Wednesday." Minerva’s shares fell 7.92% to R$11.40, the biggest drop on B3 on Wednesday. JBS and Marfrig, less dependent on exports from Brazil to China, fell 4.33% and 4.71% to R$17.91 and R$6.27, respectively (Brann, 2023).
In conclusion, this is a major economic blow, as China is the largest destination for Brazilian beef exports. The market between Brazil and China will most likely slow for some time or be completely canceled until further notice, as happened back in 2021 when there was a similar case that caused beef exports to be halted for around 3 months. As stated previously, the disease has been said to not be able to infect humans, so there is nothing to worry about when buying beef at the supermarket.
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