(Bloomberg) -- Cattle availability in Brazil will start dwindling next year, raising the cost of producing beef in the world’s largest exporter and further constraining global supplies of red meat.
Animal slaughter in the South American nation is expected to drop 4.6% next year and 7.5% in 2026, ending years of expansion, consulting firm Datagro analyst Joao Otavio Figueiredo said during a conference in Sao Paulo. Domestic cattle prices have dropped to the lowest annual average since 2020, discouraging herd expansion.
The reduction in the Brazilian cattle herd comes when beef production is already constrained by a severe shortage of slaughter-weight animals in the US, which has eroded profits for processors such as Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Inc. That is unwelcome news for JBS SA, Marfrig Global Foods SA and Minerva SA, which rely on Brazilian cattle for a sizable share of their beef output.
Brazil is expected to ship 3.3 million metric tons of beef this year, accounting for about a quarter of total global exports, according to a US Department of Agriculture projection.
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