Brazilian Meat: Why is it Cheap & Imported by Many Countries

Egypt imports a large amount of Brazilian beef each year and among the many questions on people’s minds is why imported beef is cheaper than locally sourced beef? Let’s find out

Find out the prices of livestock before Eid 2022 here

Low production costs:

One of the reasons Brazilian beef is cheaper than its competition is that Brazil is able to control production cost much better than its competitors. Their beef is produced at a lower cost than all their competitors worldwide

Special breed:

Brazilian livestock is predominantly Nelore cattle, a special breed that is known for its endurance and slow metabolism that enables it to feed less often. They can also eat lower quality cattle feed compared to the cattle in the USA and Australia for example

The Brazilian breed has a high production rate and is produced in large numbers but lately the reputation of Brazilian meat in the market is not too good.

How can a liver sandwich be so cheap? Find out more here

Why does Brazilian beef have a bad reputation?

This does not reflect on the quality of Brazilian beef itself but goes back to a huge police raid on some of the largest Brazilian meat factories entitled “Operation Carne Fraca” –operation weak meat- which exposed bribes and low quality control.

The investigation at the time rocked the world in March 2017 when Brazilian police launched a huge campaign on factories and warehouses to check the quality control and as a result many countries banned the import of Brazilian beef.

The result of the investigation

The investigation took two years to complete. The police raids exposed true disasters in quality control and hygiene. One of the findings was that factories cheated while making minced meat by adding pig heads and cardboard papers to the mix in order to increase the quantity produced. 

When the beef went bad factories added chemicals to get rid of the bad smell and sold the beef to the public. The investigation also revealed that several Brazilian officials received bribes to approve the release of bad or rotten meat to the local and international markets.

Largest Brazilian meat companies:

One of the reasons this investigation was so well known is the involvement of Brazil’s biggest meat production companies such as BRF and JBS. As a result Brazilian beef’s reputation took a huge hit and many countries including China, USA, and European Union countries stopped importing Brazilian beef.

The Brazilian beef industry went into huge slump after the investigation but recently they have managed to regain the trust and confidence of many countries and the ban was removed which was much needed by the Brazilian economy.

Just to know Brazil’s exports between the years 2000 and 2020 were more than $256 billion. Find out more here