Rumors circulating over the past week about the safeguard measures China is expected to announce on Wednesday, November 26 (see more in Asia), only added more pessimism and uncertainty regarding how trade will look like in the world’s largest beef importer.

After what a Paraguayan exporter described to WBR as a “very positive outcome” of the latest MICA meeting—given expectations for strong export demand over the next two years—another “very good piece of news” emerged Friday: President Donald Trump announced the removal of the 10% tariff on beef.

Another week of declines hit rump & loin cuts within the Hilton quota. With importers focused on logistics and preparing for the quota 481 beef that will arrive in early January, interest in new Hilton purchases delivering after the holiday season is “very limited.”

MENA countries have been “particularly active” in recent weeks, trying to secure beef shipments ahead of Ramadan (February 17 to March 19).

The sheepmeat season in Uruguay is finding “active” demand across several MENA countries.

Following Sunday’s elections, José Antonio Kast—the far-right Republican Party candidate—is now seen as the clear favorite to win December’s presidential runoff against Jeannette Jara (Communist Party + center-left allies).

With Russia essentially out of the market (ports freeze in December) and Egypt oversupplied, Peru and Colombia are now the “most convenient” destinations for liver and heart, according to a trader.

The average slaughter cattle price in the region rose for the fourth consecutive week, this time supported by a sharp increase in Argentine references. The WBR Mercosur Steer Index climbed 6 cents in the week to US$ 4.33 per kilo carcass weight and has accumulated a gain of 31 cents over the last four weeks.

In the first half of November, Brazil exported 163,700 tons shipped weight of beef at an average price of US$ 5,529 per ton, according to the Secretariat of Foreign Trade (Secex).

Preliminary data released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) confirm a record level of cattle slaughter in the third quarter 2025, surpassing previous volumes by a wide margin.

The share of beef exports relative to total production continues to rise in Brazil. In the 12 months to September, Brazil produced 10.63 million tons (carcass weight) of beef. Of that total, 3.97 million tons were exported, 37.3% of production, a record share never reached before.

JBS posted a net profit of US$581 million in the third quarter of 2025, in line with market expectations but 16% below the US$693 million reported a year earlier. Net revenue reached US$22.5 billion, up 13% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA totaled US$1.8 billion, 15% less than in 2024, with a margin of 8.1%, below the consensus estimate of 8.5%. Seara was the division with the largest margin contraction, while JBS Australia was the only business unit to show improvement.

Brazilian livestock emissions could fall by 79.9% by 2050 if the sector maintains its current pace of adopting good production practices, according to the study “Decarbonization Pathway for Brazil’s Beef Sector – 2025 to 2050.” With additional public policies and more advanced management tools, the reduction could reach 92.6%.

The federal government authorized meatpacking plants to hire private agents to carry out ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections of animals destined for slaughter. The measure, provided for under the Self-Control Law (Law 14.515/2022), was regulated by a decree signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published on November 1 in the Official Gazette.

The upward trend in slaughter cattle prices eased this week, suggesting that the market may be entering a period of price stability.

The slaughter cattle market has performed strongly this year, supported by solid international demand and by a domestic supply that has remained clearly below the needs of the industry. That latter factor will almost certainly change next year.

After Friday’s meeting between Turkish and Uruguayan authorities regarding the vessel carrying nearly 3,000 live animals stranded outside Turkey’s Bandirma port, a solution was finally reached.

The signs of stabilization in the slaughter cattle market seen last week have now been confirmed. The supply of grassfed animals is not abundant —in many plants most slaughter comes from grainfed cattle, whether for the 481 quota or not— but business is being closed within the same price range as last week, with greater chances of achieving the top values for heavy, high-quality animals, which are the scarcest.

In the second half of 2025, cow slaughter has shown consistent growth. For 22 consecutive weeks, more cows have been processed than in the same period last year, with an accumulated increase of around 50,000 head.

“I don’t remember a year when sheep prices continued rising in the middle of peak season,” a consignor said yesterday. Supply is increasing, slaughter bookings at many plants are stretching —especially those focused on grain-finished cattle— and yet the sheep market remains very firm, with slight upward corrections in prices.

Chile’s animal health authority, SAG, has opened its market to edible bovine, ovine, caprine, porcine, poultry and equine offal and by-products from Argentina for human consumption, many of which are used in sausage production, reported Argentina’s Senasa.

The Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA) and the Argentine Angus Association signed a framework agreement that will allow them to integrate genealogical and productive record-keeping systems for the Angus breed, the most widespread in the country.

As has happened every week for almost two months, export cattle again registered a price increase. Export steers rose by another Ar$ 200–300 per kg carcass weight. Thus, high-quality British-cross steers are now trading between Ar$ 7,000 and 7,300 per kg carcass weight, while Zebu-cross steers moved up to the Ar$ 6,800–7,000 range.

Frigorífico Los Lazos took a key step in its start-up phase: it began its first slaughter operations and has been officially authorized by the National Service for Animal Quality and Health (Senacsa) to process and sell beef in the domestic market, Valor Agro reported.

As expected, with slaughter bookings stretching out and a seasonal increase in supply, the industry managed to reduce raw material purchase prices by around 10 cents last week, bringing them to their lowest levels since August.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday rolled back tariffs on more than 200 food products, including such staples as coffee, beef, bananas and orange juice, in the face of growing angst among American consumers about the high cost of groceries, informed Reuters.

The combination of record imported beef supply and record prices for 90 CL confirms that the U.S. imported beef market is experiencing a moment of “stellar demand,” said Len Steiner, principal of Steiner Consulting Group, as he opened his traditional presentation on market conditions and outlook at last week’s Meat Importers Council of America (MICA) meeting in Texas.

The framework agreement announced by Presidents Donald Trump and Javier Milei includes a key chapter for the agricultural sector, with significant advances in beef and other food products.

Meat consumption habits in the United States are undergoing a major transformation. According to the Meat Perceptions and Realities 2025 report presented by Anne-Marie Roerink at the MICA conference, Millennials —now aged between 29 and 45— are on the verge of surpassing Baby Boomers (60–78) as the main food-spending group.

A panel of leading cattle market economists expects historically strong US cattle prices to persist for several years, despite political pressure over beef inflation and packers operating with sustained negative margins. Speaking at the Missouri Governor’s Conference on Agriculture, experts from Oklahoma State University, Rabo AgriFinance and the University of Missouri agreed that the tightest cattle supplies are still ahead, while demand remains exceptionally strong.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has inaugurated a facility for the dispersal of sterile flies in Tampico, Mexico, as part of its strategy to halt the spread of the New World screwworm. The unit will allow coverage of the entire northeast of Mexico, including Nuevo León, near the U.S. border, Agro Estadão reported.

Although packer margins remain in negative territory, they improved significantly last week, with Sterling Marketing estimating margins at –US$ 44.53 per head, compared to –US$ 170.25 the previous week.

The move by the administration to provide relief for tariffs on beef imports is not a wrongheaded notion according to The AG Center. The domestic beef supply has not yet reached the low point for production and as these years ending placements plummet, the supplies of beef available to beef plants will ratchet lower in the coming year.

Compared to the last market test, US beef import prices were firm to higher, instances sharply higher for some nearby trades.

The European Council authorized the European Commission to begin negotiations with the United Kingdom on an agreement to create a common sanitary and phytosanitary zone. The goal is to reduce the burden of agricultural trade between the EU and the UK through the harmonization of sanitary and phytosanitary rules.

In an emergency meeting held this Friday in Shanghai with several major beef-importing companies, the Chinese government revealed some of the guidelines that will govern beef imports once the safeguard measures —set to be announced on November 26— come into effect.

In October, China imported around 490,000 tons of meat and offal worth US$ 2.074 billion, according to GACC data released by OIG+X. Of that total, 280,000 tons were beef and beef offal worth US$ 1.558 billion, 17.9% above the same month last year.

As expected, given the high import volumes in September and relatively weak domestic demand, stocks of imported beef in Chinese cold stores continued to grow in October.

Since the outbreak of the Israel–Palestine conflict, the Suez Canal —a vital artery of global maritime trade— has been severely affected. The threat posed by the Houthis in the Red Sea forced a large number of vessels to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope, increasing transit times and costs.

Germany can once again export fresh beef to Japan. Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture announced on November 12 the lifting of the import ban imposed in January of this year.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with the Israeli company Believer Meats, announced a scientific breakthrough that could transform the global cultivated-meat industry. In a study published in the prestigious journal Nature Food, they demonstrated that bovine cells can spontaneously acquire the ability to divide indefinitely —a form of “cellular immortality”— without genetic engineering and without becoming cancerous.