This week the European Union distributed the first allocation of the new beef quota under the EU-Mercosur agreement among around 300 importers. That volume may be used between June 1 and July 31, corresponding to the May-June bimester.
“We are now seeing how trading will take place; we still do not know how we are going to structure the business,” an importer told WBR. The source added that importers who fail to use their allocated volume will face fines, although it is taken for granted that this will not occur given the limited quota corresponding to each operator.
For the May-December 2026 period, the available quota will total 11,000 tons carcass weight, divided into 6,050 tons of chilled beef and 4,950 tons of frozen beef, under a first come, first served allocation system across three windows.
The first window includes 1,512 tons of chilled beef and 1,237 tons of frozen beef for the May-June bimester. Two additional quarterly windows will then open, each with 2,268 tons of chilled beef and 1,856 tons of frozen beef.
