Who will be the main players in the international meat market in 2026?

In its latest report on global meat production and trade, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) strongly revised upwards its estimate for 2025. It calculated global beef exports for the current year at 13.6 million tons, 700 thousand tons (5%) more than the previous year. At the beginning of the year, a stagnation of traded volumes was expected after the sharp increase in global beef trade in 2024. In the 2024-2025 biennium, global trade increases by 1.6 million tons, with Brazil increasing its shipments by 1.35 million tons and Australia by 625 thousand tons. After this extraordinary increase, global beef exports next year would stabilize at 13.5 million tons, approximately 150 thousand tons below 2025. For next year, the USDA expects Brazil to place four million tons, 250 thousand tons less than this year, and Australia to export 2.17 million tons, 20 thousand tons less than in 2025. For India, it estimates 1.69 million tons, that is, 15 thousand tons more, and for ...