BUENOS AIRES, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Argentina will loosen export restrictions on beef that were put in place in a bid to curtail inflation and had been panned by meatpackers, the government said on Thursday after a meeting with industry groups.

Argentina’s inflation hovers around an eye-watering 50% a year, while the poverty rate sits at 40%, factors that had pressured center-left President Alberto Fernandez to try to contain rising food prices by curbing beef exports.

Restrictions will remain in place, however, on the most consumed cuts in Argentina, in a bid to prevent those prices from rising.

By Maximilian Heath / Reuters

CHICAGO, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Tyson Foods Inc plans to spend more than $1.3 billion to increase automation in meat plants over the next three years, Chief Executive Donnie King said on Thursday, as a U.S. labour shortage has limited production while demand is booming.

Meat processors have been unable to find enough workers for the past two years due to the tight labour market and health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company will increasingly use machines, instead of people, to debone chicken, one of its most labour-intensive jobs and a position with high turnover, said David Bray, group president of Tyson’s poultry division. A capital investment of $500 million in the area through fiscal year 2024 will generate labour savings equal to more than 2,000 jobs, he said.

Profitability in Tyson’s chicken unit has declined partly due to the labour shortage and because processing plants are operating below full capacity, Bray said.

“We are not servicing our customers to the degree that they expect us to,” Bray said.

Reuters 

SAO PAULO, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Brazilian food processor BRF SA plans to start producing meat in China as part of an aggressive growth plan that could more than double annual net sales by 2030, executives said during a company presentation on Wednesday.

BRF mainly serves the Chinese market via exports.

But as China rebuilt its pork herd and the pandemic rattled global logistics, local presence, as BRF has had for years in the Middle East, will be paramount.

“To be a much more relevant player in China we need to increase local production,” Patricio Rohner, BRF’s vice-president of international markets, told reporters after the presentation.

He said BRF already operates in China through local partnerships in sales and distribution.

BRF does not rule out acquisitions in China, but Rohner personally prefers building the company’s own factory there. “When you buy a rival, a local producer, they don’t have the portfolio that the younger consumers need.”

AHDB Pork’s weekly pig prices, slaughter data and commentary for Great Britain.

In the week ended 4 December, the EU-spec SPP fell again, by 0.72p, to 142.84p/kg. This puts the measure 8.2p below where it was at the same time last year, meanwhile feed prices have strengthened significantly, damaging profitability.

Estimated slaughter for the week was 193,800 head. This was higher than last week’s figure by around 7,900 head, but 3,700 head lower than during the equivalent week last year. Reports suggest there was a further increase in the number of abattoirs undertaking a Saturday kill, with Christmas throughputs now well under way.

The average carcase weight fell slightly compared to the previous week, to 91.88kg.

by AHDB

Businessman Larry Goodman has set up a supervisory board over his beef-to-property empire, putting his eldest son in a key succession position. The move puts order over the long-term direction of the Goodman family’s interests.

Mr Goodman (84) has become chairman of the supervisory board over the family’s ABP Food Group and Parma investments arm, which have a combined annual turnover of more than €4.5 billion and employ 15,000 people across nine countries, the group said in a statement after staff were informed of the development on Thursday.

The overhaul sees Mr Goodman step down from the board of ABP Food Group, the largest beef processor in Ireland and Britain, which dates back to 1954. However, his son, Laurence Goodman jnr (40), will join both the board of ABP Food, where he has extensive prior experience at both plant and divisional level, and the overarching supervisory board.

The beef magnate’s younger son, Mark Goodman (37), who resigned as managing director of ABP International a year ago, has also stepped down from the board of ABP Food, according to the statement. He established an investment company this year, called Bellingham Capital, to target opportunities in the agribusiness, food and renewable energy fields across Ireland and Britain.

By Joe Brennan / The Irish Times

Pork imports from EU countries with confirmed cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) must be halted or the domestic pig sector could face economic devastation.

That was the message from NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy as he warned the Westminster Government that ASF was ‘moving fast’ across Europe, posing a serious biosecurity risk to producers.

In a letter to Defra Secretary George Eustice, Mr Kennedy pointed out no checks had been carried out on EU pork imports to the UK since January 2021, adding this could not be allowed to continue.

“The Government has taken no action to date due to concerns about breaking compliance with the Trade and Cooperation Agreement,” he said.

“We have been told that action would be permitted if Europe is having difficulties in controlling disease outbreaks.

“Following discussions with European colleagues, this is clearly now the case.

“I am in no doubt that should the situation have been reversed, our exports would have been stopped entering Europe many weeks ago.”

by Hannah Binns / Farmers Guardian 

Skyrocketing shipping price hikes have hit the ‘big five’ global meat exporters as Covid-19 continues to play havoc in global markets.

Brazil, Australia, India, USA and Argentina were facing unprecedented increases according to the Platts Container Index as key global trade routes have increased from US $1,000 (£770) in May 2020 to US $7,500 (£5,770) in September 2021 – for a 40ft container or the equivalent.

Beef exporters face the possibility of foregoing access to certain lucrative global markets due to increased
rates and the inability to secure freight especially for high-value chilled meat products.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released a report which found freight rates on key global routes are approximately seven times higher than just over a year ago.

Beef exporters claim containers costing AU $2,000 (£1,175) two years ago are costing AU $15,000 (£8,825) today.

Australian food exporters are quoted as ‘struggling’ to meet contractual obligations. Chilled meat products shipped to California now have a turnaround of 70 days instead of 35.

By Bruce Jobson / Farmers Guardian

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) has accused the Scottish Government of overlooking the “local abattoir crisis” facing livestock producers in many parts of Scotland.

RBST chief executive, Christopher Price, has written a letter to Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon to raise his concerns.

In the letter, Mr Price says two government consultations – Agricultural Transition in Scotland: first steps towards our national policy and Local Food For Everyone – failed to recognise the need to address the abattoir shortage in Scotland.

“The decline of the local abattoir network in Scotland has created a serious obstacle to sustainable farming and local food networks, but both of the Scottish Government’s recent consultation papers on the future of farming and local food have overlooked this vital issue,” said Mr Price.

He said data from Quality Meat Scotland suggested there were now only 26 red meat abattoirs in Scotland and results from an RBST survey earlier this year showed 42% of rare breeds livestock owners cited a lack of a suitable abattoir as one of their top three greatest barriers to business growth.

Mr Price added: “A network of future facing, resilient local abattoirs is crucial for farming with the native breeds of livestock like the Aberdeen-Angus and Highland cattle which play such an important role in supporting Scotland’s biodiversity and are also stars of Scottish food.

“I urge the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands to ensure that the path towards the local abattoir network that Scotland needs is central to the development of local food and farming strategies.”

By Gemma Mackie / Press and Journal

Exports of British lamb to the US market can resume from next year after more than two decades of restrictions.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) today confirmed it has amended the rule which currently prevents imports of lamb from the UK into the USA. The amended “small ruminant rule” will come into force on 3 January 2022.

This exciting new development means that over 300 million US consumers will soon be able to enjoy the UK’s world-renowned lamb. It is estimated that this market will be worth £37 million in the first five years of trade.

In a call with his US counterpart Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Environment Secretary George Eustice expressed his delight at the news. The Ministers committed to continue to work together in the months ahead.

Today’s update comes after President Biden committed to lift the ban on British lamb during the Prime Minister’s visit to the White House in September, and follows an easing on restrictions on British beef exports earlier this year.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “Today’s great news follows years of negotiations and builds on the success in securing the resumption of UK beef exports to the US. UK lamb is renowned for its high quality, food safety and welfare standards. Millions of US consumers will now be able to enjoy British lamb as early as next year”

“The US market for lamb is growing as consumer trends change and there are now new opportunities for farmers and meat processors in this market”.

International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said:

“This is fantastic news that brings UK farmers a step closer to putting their first-class lamb on American menus for the first time in more than 20 years.

The UK exported £436.4 million worth of lamb to the world last year and over £29 million worth of meat to the US. We want those numbers to grow and this win will help achieve that.

Our teams are working hard to unlock multi-million-pound markets for brilliant UK businesses and I will be banging the drum for them when I visit the US this week”.

Gov.UK

Just 108 companies now control a fourth of China’s swine production capacity, according to a list prepared for a recent swine industry forum. Unpredictable gyrations in China’s hog market continue with the influx of big pig farmers, contrary to the expectations of agricultural officials.

Pigs have historically been scattered across millions of backyard pens, sheds, and living rooms in Chinese villages. At the peak of backyard pig-farming, China’s 1997 agricultural census counted over 130 million rural households raising pigs–usually one or two at a time–and those small family holdings accounted for 95 percent of the swine inventory.

In recent years a handful of companies have been on a hog-farm construction binge. Their expansion accelerated during a 2014-17 environmental regulatory push that shut down hundreds of thousands of small farms. Then the African swine fever epidemic wiped out millions more of small farms, biosecurity requirements and a new round of subsidies favoured big companies, and “pig concept” stocks became fashionable, attracting billions of dollars of capital investment.

A list of 108 companies with at least 10,000 sows was compiled for the 7th China swine industry summit based on company financial reports, industry news, and unpublished sources. The combined sow inventory of the 108 companies as of October-November 2021 was 11.79 million head. That’s about a fourth of the 44.79-million-head national sow inventory reported by the China National Bureau of Statistics’ as of the end of September.

Muyuan Foods Group was the clear number-one company, with 2.7 million sows. Three other companies–Wens Foodstuff, New Hope-Liuhe, and Zhengbang Technology–were listed with 1 million or more sows. These top four companies had a combined 5.9 million sows. Another 15 companies had 100,000-400,000 sows each (3.2 million sows combined), 22 companies had 50,000-90,000 sows (1.4 million combined), and 67 companies had 10,000-40,000 sows (1.2 million combined).

Muyuan pulled ahead of the competition during the African swine fever crisis. A ranking from 2016 showed Wens produced more than 5 times as many hogs as Muyuan and Zhengbang, and a 2019 ranking still showed Wens in the top spot. Muyuan now has 2.7 million sows, more than double Wens’ 1.2 million.

For years Chinese agricultural officials have blamed small farmers for constant booms and busts in the hog industry–“blindly” expanding when prices are high and then killing off sows when prices drop. However, the influx of gigantic farms has perpetuated industry gyrations.

The report estimated that the current population of sows could produce 235.8 million finished hogs if each produced 20 marketed hogs per year. Hogs raised from a sow bred now would be ready for market in September 2022.

The report estimates that 150 companies had 10,000 sows at the beginning of the year, but the number dropped to 108 due to culling of unprofitable sows. The report estimates that the top 108 farms are operating at just two-thirds of their capacity–a third of barns and stalls are empty due to the crash in prices this year.

by Dim Sums