The Global Livestock Report

During the America Business Forum in Miami, Argentine President Javier Milei made the first official mention of the expansion of the tariff-rate quota for Argentine beef granted by the United States. Referring to Donald Trump as “a personal friend and a friend of Argentina,” Milei stated that “Argentina will exploit its resources and develop currently underperforming industries.”

In October, Argentina’s cattle slaughter reached 1.201 million head, up 2.3% from September and the second highest of the year, behind the July peak. Compared with October 2024, which had been that year’s record month— slaughter was down 6.3%.

In the first ten months of 2025, cattle slaughter totaled nearly 11.396 million head, just 1.2% lower than in the same period of 2024. However, trends varied by category: among the main ones, cow slaughter fell 9% and young steer slaughter 1%, while heifer slaughter rose 3% and steer slaughter increased 5%.

In recent months, Rioplatense and Swift Argentina (Minerva) have alternated as Argentina’s leading beef processing plants, but since mid-2024, Rioplatense has held the top position.

China’s Customs Administration (GACC) announced that it has lifted the ban on poultry meat imports from Brazil as of October 31.

In October —as it had already done in July and September of this year— Brazil shipped a record volume of beef to international markets. According to data released by the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), exports totaled 320,559 tons, nearly 6,000 tons more than the volume shipped in September.