Brazilian packers move forward with proposal to internally split China quota

Brazilian meatpackers have advanced a proposal to distribute the 1.106 million-ton China quota allocated to Brazil among exporters during the first three quarters of the year, in order to prevent part of the shipments made in 2025 from being counted against the 2026 quota, according to the portal Pecuaria.

The proposal was drafted at the offices of former Foreign Trade Secretary Welber Barral, at the initiative of the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (Abiec). The expectation is that the Executive Management Committee (Gecex) of the Chamber of Foreign Trade (Camex) will evaluate the proposal by the end of next week.

The plan consists of assigning quotas by company, likely based on the export performance of the 67 plants authorized in 2025. The distribution would be quarterly, with monthly monitoring to allow for the reallocation of unused volumes. A minimum annual quota of 8 thousand tons per plant would be established, along with a reserve of 33 thousand tons for potential new participants.

Brazilian exporters estimate that around 300 thousand tons shipped in 2025 will count toward the 2026 quota, leaving slightly more than 700 thousand tons available. In January alone, an additional 123 thousand tons were shipped to China, considering an average transit time of 40 days.

Starting in 2027, the quota would be distributed based on a two-year moving average of volumes shipped by each exporting plant. Companies wishing to participate in the quota must be in good fiscal standing, hold sanitary authorization and have no recent penalties.