Meat to China: A crisis of prices, not volumes

Last October, China imported 224 thousand tons of beef, 12% less than the same month last year. Volume is still very high, but reflects a decline for the third consecutive month. In the accumulated 2023, imports are 3% higher than in January-October 2022. The CIF import price of boneless frozen meat, the most representative item, averaged about US$5,034 per ton (US$/ton) last October, 32% below the peak of prices in July of the year. last, when it touched 7,400 CIF dollars per ton. What a broker said more than a year ago continues to be verified: “This is a price crisis, not a volume crisis.” In the line of boneless chilled meats, which represents only 2% of Chinese imports, Australia leads with 25,500 tons (+31%), followed by the United States with 14,750 tons (+12%), New Zealand with 7,781 tons and Argentina with 1,274 tons, always considering the January-October period of this year. The CIF price of Australian chilled meat in this period is US$11,234, that of the United States ...