Average export value under the U.S. quota up 40% in 2025

With just over two weeks to go before the end of the first half of the year, Uruguay has already used 48% of its 20,000-ton duty-free beef quota with the United States. Amid a heated U.S. market — ahead of the tariff hike enacted by the Trump administration and with the lowest cattle stock in 70 years and beef and cattle prices soaring — Uruguayan exporters have capitalized on the situation.

According to data from the INAC Board accessed by World Beef Report, as of June 13 the average value per ton of beef exported from Uruguay under the U.S. duty-free quota was US$/t 11,300, up 40% compared to the same period last year.

As part of a commercial strategy to use the quota for higher value-added cuts (hindquarter cuts, organic certification, etc.), exporters have taken advantage of this hot demand to ship those premium products duty-free and save the traditional forequarter blocks (which fetch less than half that average value) for shipments outside the 20,000-ton quota, which paid a 26.4% tariff until early April and later rose to 36.4%.