Brazil reroutes beef shipments after U.S. tariff announcement

Around 30,000 tonnes of Brazilian beef were either at ports awaiting shipment to the United States or already en route when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian products starting August 1. Some of these shipments continued to the U.S., while others were redirected to destinations such as Mexico, according to reporting by Valor.

The decision to continue with shipments already in transit was an attempt to minimize the losses exporters could face if the new tariff were to come into effect.

On Monday, the president of the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (Abiec), Roberto Perosa, stated that the sector could face a negative impact of US$1 billion from losing access to the U.S. market, which was expected to receive about 200,000 tonnes of beef this semester. Between January and June of this year, Brazil exported 181,500 tonnes to the U.S., earning US$1.04 billion from those shipments.

See below a historical overview of Brazilian beef exports starting from January 2022. The chart was created using DataLiner data:

Brazilian Beef Exports – Jan 2022 to May 2025 – TEU

Source: DataLiner (Click here to request a demo)

“We had been shipping between 15,000 and 25,000 tonnes of beef per month to the U.S. and expected to reach 400,000 tonnes this year,” Perosa said during an online event hosted by Exame magazine. According to him, the 50% tariff would raise the total duties on Brazilian beef exports to 76.4%, making sales unfeasible.

Industry sources told Valor that meatpackers with cargo either at port or already at sea chose to maintain some of the shipments to the U.S. Some of these have already arrived at American ports and avoided the new tariff.

Three sources said that JBS and Minerva were among the companies with cargo en route to the U.S. In Minerva’s case, some shipments were redirected to Mexico — a route change that would have minimal impact on logistics costs, according to two sources. Both companies declined to comment.

Meanwhile, meatpacker Astra had 27 tonnes of beef at a Brazilian port that were returned to the original plant, according to Valor. The company also had another 27-tonne shipment at sea headed for the U.S., which continued its journey and might arrive before August 1.

One source noted that companies still hope that shipments arriving after August 1 might enter the U.S. without being subject to the new tariff. “That’s why they are choosing to proceed with the shipments,” the source said.

Perosa of Abiec acknowledged that, even with rerouting, there is no immediate alternative market capable of absorbing the volume previously destined for the U.S. “There are alternatives, but none as accessible as the U.S., which can take large volumes. No other market can absorb everything that would have gone to the U.S.”

Still, he argued that the U.S. does not have an alternative supplier capable of replacing Brazil with the same level of price competitiveness.

“Argentine and Uruguayan beef competes with American beef on supermarket shelves. But those competitors don’t have the volume that Brazil produces for the [U.S.] processing industry,” he said.

U.S. cattle supply is at its lowest level in decades and may not return to previous highs — hence the country’s need to import beef to meet domestic demand.

Source: Globo Rural

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