Colombia to Export Beef to China

Colombia will begin exporting beef to China in April after receiving the approval of the Asian country’s sanitary authorities. It is estimated that exports of this product to China will initially reach 50,000 tons per year.

Six months after the approval of the export protocol with the Asian giant, everything is ready to start this commercial line in a little less than two weeks. China, a market of more than 1.4 billion consumers, is the main importer of this product worldwide, with a 43% share of the world market.

“Finally, the Chinese government has just approved the first two plants to export Colombian beef. As we commented in the past few days, the first exports will be made once Easter Week is over,” said Augusto Beltran, from the cattle federation Fedegan.

Minerva Foods approved by China

These first two plants are located in Bucaramanga and Cienaga de Oro (Cordoba) and belong to Minerva Foods, a leading beef exporter in South America.

The possibility of exporting beef to the Asian giant represents an important economic boost for the sector in Colombia. For Jose Felix Lafaurie, president of Fedegan, it is the result of more than a decade of work by his organisation in collaboration with the Colombian government. “The opening of this market and the arrival of Colombian beef in China has become the best news in recent years for cattle farmers throughout the country and is the fruit of the commitment of producers to sustainability, genetic improvement, and animal welfare and health,” said Lafaurie.

Trade relations with China

Colombia, like other countries in the world, has been strengthening trade relations with China, a growing economic power, for more than three decades. In this regard, at the end of October 2023, Colombian President Gustavo Petro traveled to Beijing to sign twelve cooperation agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping, including a trade protocol that paved the way for Colombian beef exports to China.

Although for now, the first forecasts put the annual number of tons of beef that Colombia would send to China at 50,000, short-term projections double that amount, reaching 100,000 tons per year.

However, not everyone has been so satisfied with this agreement. Despite the obvious economic boost for the livestock sector, spokespersons for environmental organizations have warned of the growing deforestation that the increase in livestock exports could cause in the country. Considering that in the last three decades, more than three million hectares have been lost in the Colombian Amazon due to cattle ranching alone, this is an obvious concern.

With this export agreement, China continues to participate in the Colombian economy, after becoming the main agent in the construction of the future Bogota Metro, in addition to participating in the national railroad recovery process in Colombia.

Foot and mouth disease crisis over

Although negotiations with China to approve beef exports began more than a decade ago, the spread of foot-and-mouth disease in 2018 complicated the process. At that time, several export routes for this meat were closed for Colombia, although the sanitary crisis was overcome in 2020.

Finally, the Minister of Agriculture, Jhenifer Mojica, was in China a month before the October visit of President Petro to smooth the process, allowing the approval of the protocol against foot-and-mouth disease. The success came with the signing of the meat export process between President Gustavo Petro and the Chinese leader a few days later.

At that time, Mario Valencia, director of International Affairs of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture, affirmed that Colombia could end up exporting at some point up to 250,000 tons per year of beef, which could generate revenues of “around one billion dollars”.