Sao Paulo | Reuters — Chicken prices are rising as companies start to cut production to reduce global oversupply, Fabio Mariano, CFO of BRF SA, said on Tuesday, after a glut helped to push the Brazilian pork and poultry producer to a first-quarter loss. The firm posted a 1.024 billion-real (C$287.7 million) net loss for […] Read more

Global chicken meat oversupply improving, Brazil’s BRF says
Lower grain costs also expected to boost margins

Brazil’s BRF gets nod to export wings to Canada
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazilian food processor BRF said on Tuesday Canada has authorized chicken wing exports from two of its plants located in top farm state Mato Grosso. BRF has been seeking to sell more products to Canada to strengthen its position in developed markets and also shore up competition against domestic rivals […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Hogs, cattle sink to multi-month lows
Ample supplies drag on cattle futures
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. hog and cattle futures dropped to fresh multi-month lows on Wednesday. Ample supplies and weakening cash markets weighed on the cattle contracts while concerns about demand from China pressured hog futures. The pressure on cattle comes at a time of year when the market tends to find support due to […] Read more

Canada, other countries raise meat inspection bar for Brazil
Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Meat-importing countries from North America to Europe and Asia have tightened inspection standards for shipments from Brazil in a bid to protect consumers, following a probe into possible corruption involving inspectors. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said on Wednesday that the tighter inspection standards it enacted in April have resulted […] Read more

U.S. bans fresh Brazil beef imports over safety concerns
Chicago | Reuters — The United States halted imports of fresh Brazilian beef on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, after a high percentage of shipments failed to pass safety checks. USDA had “recurring concerns about the safety of the products intended for the American market,” after increasing tests on Brazilian beef in March, […] Read more

‘Operation Weak Flesh’ takes bite out of Brazil’s meat exports
Sao Paulo | Reuters –– Brazil’s meat exports have fallen sharply since a police investigation into alleged bribery of food-sanitation inspectors in the world’s top beef and poultry exporter sparked a wave of trade bans, an industry group said on Friday. Import restrictions by several key importers of Brazilian meat, ranging from China to Europe, […] Read more

JBS suspends Brazil beef output amid import bans
Sao Paulo | Reuters — Brazil’s JBS SA, the world’s biggest meatpacking company, announced on Thursday it had suspended beef production at 33 of its 36 Brazilian plants amid the corruption scandal that has caused some of the country’s biggest export markets to ban Brazilian meats. Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said a police investigation, which […] Read more

Brazil ag ministry, police say meat problems not widespread
Lapa, Brazil | Reuters — Brazil’s federal police and agriculture ministry said late Tuesday that sanitary and corruption problems found in the nation’s meatpacking industry were isolated incidents, an attempt to tamp down a scandal that has led the Latin American nation’s biggest export markets to ban its meats. Since police launched raids on processing […] Read more

Brazil beef scandal leaves fewer options for global buyers
Chicago | Reuters –– Global beef buyers will likely need to cobble together supplies from several nations if a scandal persists in Brazil’s meat sector because supply constraints and politics are already limiting trade flows, market analysts said Monday. China suspended imports of all meat products from Brazil, the world’s top beef exporter, as a […] Read more

Brazilian meatpackers slump on import curbs
Sao Paulo/Beijing | Reuters — Fallout from a meatpacking industry scandal in Brazil, the world’s biggest exporter of beef and poultry, widened on Monday as China, the EU, South Korea and Chile curtailed meat imports from the country after inspectors were accused of taking bribes to allow sales of tainted food. With other import curbs […] Read more