Brazilian beef challenge grows

THE challenge of Brazilian beef on the world market has been underlined by the latest returns which show that Brazil is on course to become the largest exporter of beef in the world in 2004.

Beef production in Brazil is going through a boom with cattle slaughterings during the first half of the year reaching 12.4 million head and production for the year set to exceed that of the EU by about 0.25 million tonnes.

The boom in production has resulted in a 25% increase being recorded for the April-June quarter compared with the same period last year.