Rising demand pushes U.S. to import more beef despite tariffs, says JBS owner

Wesley Batista, one of the billionaire brothers behind JBS — the world’s largest meat company — said the United States is not producing enough beef to meet the country’s growing appetite for protein-rich diets, becoming increasingly dependent on imports.

“The U.S. faces the highest beef prices in history and therefore needs to import more and more because domestic production is not enough to meet demand,” said Batista, whose family founded and controls Brazil-based JBS.

The average price of half a pound of ground beef reached a record US$6.32 in U.S. cities in August, up 13% from last year, according to Labor Department data.

Despite the broad “Liberation Day” tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 2, the country imported 30% more beef in the first half of the year compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Imports of Brazilian beef rose 91% during the same period, before falling in August, following the U.S. raising tariffs on Brazilian products from 10% to 50%.

Beef exports to the United States | Jan 2022 to Aug 2025 | TEU

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JBS is the largest beef producer in the U.S., with new plants operating in the country. The group’s U.S. operations — spanning meat and food products — accounted for half of its US$77 billion revenue in 2024.

Speaking at the Rothschild Consumer Conference in London last month, Batista said the growing use of GLP-1-based weight-loss drugs may be driving protein demand. Users of GLP-1 drugs are advised to consume a diet rich in protein to help maintain muscle mass.

“No one knows exactly what the impact of these new drugs, Ozempic or Mounjaro, will be… but something is happening, because protein in general has become a trend,” he said. “In the past, doctors would say you shouldn’t eat too many eggs or too much protein. Now it’s the opposite.”

A survey conducted last year by the International Food Information Council, an industry-funded nonprofit, found that 71% of respondents were trying to increase their protein intake, compared with 67% in 2023 and 59% in 2022.

Batista, who previously served as JBS CEO and now sits on the board, stated that the tariffs are not harming the company, as most of the beef sold in the U.S. market is produced domestically.

“Of course, products are getting more expensive in some markets, but demand remains very strong, especially in the U.S.,” he added.

Larissa Alvarez, an analyst at StoneX, said rising U.S. beef prices are “mainly driven by reduced cattle supply, with the smallest herd since the 1950s.”

Droughts in the southeastern U.S. have dried up pastures, forcing ranchers to downsize herds. Record-high calf prices have also led farmers to sell rather than raise animals.

“This combines with structurally strong international demand, given the high per capita consumption, as the country is one of the largest consumers in the world,” Alvarez said.

Controlled by Wesley and Joesley Batista — whose father founded the company more than 70 years ago — JBS has grown from a local slaughterhouse into a global food giant.

The company, which is also the second-largest producer of chicken and pork in the U.S., has diversified into eggs, fish, ready meals, and plant-based products in recent years.

The brothers, who hold just under half of JBS’s shares but the majority of voting rights, fulfilled a long-held ambition in June, when the company moved its main stock listing from São Paulo to New York, overcoming strong opposition from environmental activists. Since then, JBS shares have risen 3.5%, valuing the company at US$15.9 billion.

Over the past decade, JBS has been embroiled in a political corruption scandal in Brazil and harshly criticized by activist groups for its alleged role in Amazon deforestation linked to cattle ranching.

The company says it is working to eliminate deforestation from its supply chains. The Batista brothers said last month that there is still room for Brazil’s beef sector to become more efficient.

“We are working with rural producers everywhere to help them produce more with the same amount of land and resources,” said Batista. He added that American producers could produce the same amount of beef with half the herd size of Brazil’s, thanks to selective breeding and superior nutrition.

The latest EAT-Lancet Commission report advocates for sustainable diets based primarily on plant foods, with recommendations to limit red meat consumption to once a week, poultry and fish to about twice a week, and dairy to once a day. People in high-income countries such as the U.S. eat several times more red meat than the report recommends, according to the document, which brings together 70 food and climate scientists from 35 countries.

Source: Valor Econômico

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