Global beef roundup: A South American perspective

Clint Peck | April 29, 2025

View the article on Beef Magazine

BEEF Magazine recently authored a series of articles profiling the major beef-producing nations of South America. In the series we covered Brazil Part 1 and Brazil Part 2, Argentina Part 1 and Argentina Part 2, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Before diving into a perspective of these four Southern Common Market (Mercosur) nations, a review the beef systems in each country might be in order.

Brazil: The South American blowtorch

Brazil is home to 21% of all cattle roaming our planet. Eighty-five percent of Brazil’s herd genetics are from Nelore cattle, a zebu-type Bos indicus breed.
These cattle thrive in the tropical and subtropical climates that comprises most of Brazil’s grazing land. It’s a landscape where British and Continental breeds can’t tolerate the heat, humidity, insects and parasites—and where even other Bos indicus types generally fail to measure up when crossed with Nelore.
Over the past few years, Brazil’s 192 million-head cow herd produced about 18% of the world’s beef. In the U.S., 87.2 million head produce about 20% of the global beef supply. Do the math, and you’ll quickly determine Brazil and its Nelore cattle face challenges that throttle back productivity.
Nelore cows are hardy and long-lived, but it’s not uncommon for a 20-year-old Nelore to calve only 8-10 times. Heifers typically drop their first calf at three to four years of age. Rebreeding intervals average 16-18 months. Nelore bulls hit puberty at 20-24 months. Steers are slaughtered at 24-30 months—and dress at around 53%.
South America’s native grasses and forbs tend to die out rather quickly when subjected to grazing pressure. Thus the Brachiaria genus of grasses native to Africa have been seeded to an estimated 500,000 square miles across Brazil—albeit on notoriously poor soils.
Concentrated cattle feeding is far down the list when it comes to use of feed grains in Brazil. Soybeans and corn power a cash-based export industry, pouring billions of dollars into Brazil’s economy. Available feed grains are fed first to poultry and hogs—the better converters.
Brazil is perennially the world’s leading beef exporter. In 2024, producers there marketed 3.3 million metric tons (MT) of beef and veal worth about $8 billion. By comparison U.S. beef producers exported 1.3 million MT of beef products worth about $10 billion.
China maintained its position as the top destination for Brazilian beef in 2024, importing 1.33 million MT valued at $6 billion. The U.S. ranked second with 229,000 MT worth $1.35 billion.

Argentina: Steeped in tradition

Argentina and Brazil couldn’t be more different when it comes to producing beef. The 300,000-square mile Pampas is arguably the richest cattle grazing environment in the world. Today, Angus and Red Angus cows represent 50-60% of Argentina’s 50 million-head cow herd. A mix of Hereford, Continental and synthetic breeds provide genetic diversity and heterosis.
It’s estimated that 45% of all the country’s 13.5 million slaughter cattle spend some amount of time in feedlot or pasture-hybrid grain feeding schemes. Producers periodically benefit from government subsidies intended to offset domestic grain prices and increase production of high-grading beef for export.
Cattle were first introduced to Argentina in the 1500s to produce leather for the Old  World. Beef was a nuisance byproduct. But today, Argentinians are the consummate carnivores, consuming about 100 lb. of beef per person annually.
Beef is so important to the population’s gastric desires that the government uses beef as a tool to keep its people happy. In various ways, beef prices have been used to help quell civil unrest. The Argentinian government has periodically limited and even halted beef exports in an effort to increase domestic supply and reduce local beef prices.
Beef price controls and exports manipulation comes at a price, though, as over the past 30 years, many cattle producers—especially smaller cattlemen—have exited the industry. Consolidation and concentration in all sectors is the result.
Most of Argentina’s grain-fed beef is exported to the European Union through the Hilton Quota system at a 20% tariff. China is forecasted to continue as Argentina’s largest beef market, as it has been in the last 10 years—receiving mostly frozen forequarter beef blocks.
After foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) concerns were lifted in 2015, Argentinian beef began entering the U.S. under an annual tariff rate quota (TRQ) of 20,000 MT. Exports outside the quota were subject to a 26.4% tariff. In 2024, the TRQ was exceeded by about 14,500 MT, with most of the out-of-quota beef consisting of higher-value cuts.

Uruguay: The micro dynamo

Uruguay’s beef industry, much like Argentina’s, evolved as Spanish explorers conquered and settled the region in the 1500s. Cattle were raised mostly for their hides.
The advent of refrigerated shipping in the late 1890s changed the picture. At about the same time, Uruguay’s land reform programs broke up three centuries of oligarchical property ownership. Lucrative beef export markets attracted investment in an industry that pivoted on low-cost production.
During the decades leading up to the mid-1900s, Uruguayan beef producers tried to gain a foothold in a stormy marketplace. But they had little help from the country’s treasury. Additionally, from 1994 until 2001, Uruguay suffered through recurring cases of FMD.
Today, Uruguay's cattle population is around 12.1 million head—four times more than its population of people. Annual beef production has held steady recently at about 700,000 MT—of which only 50,000 MT is consumed domestically. FMD is controlled by mandatory vaccination coupled with highly controlled vaccination verification and cattle traceability systems.
About one-third of the country’s beef comes from cattle finished on grass or crop aftermath. Most other steers are fattened on grass supplemented with either silage or high-moisture grain. Feedlots finish 20% of Uruguay’s steers, with the beef exported under the Hilton Quota.
To date, Uruguay has enjoyed an annual U.S. TRQ of 20,000 MT while paying about a 2 cents/lb. duty. Beef exports outside the TRQ are (up to this date) subject to a 26.4% duty. In 2023 and 2024, about 45,000 MT of Uruguay’s beef exports to the U.S. were outside the quota.
Uruguayan beef producers feel confident the next few years will offer increased trade opportunities through the country’s very aggressive market promotion programs.
The rub comes with increasing input prices and changes in the domestic tax structure. Presently, Uruguayan leadership is determined to address the nation’s decaying transportation infrastructure. Agricultural producers also fear their taxes will be used to subsidize investments into the nation’s communication systems and manufacturing sectors.

Paraguay: It gets no respect

Paraguay is sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil (with an elbow poking into Bolivia) and will forever suffer as a landlocked nation. If either of its bigger neighbors, sneeze Paraguay goes into cardiac arrest.
Nearly 90% of the nation’s farmland is owned by 3% of its landowners—wealthy city dwellers who hire managers to run most of Paraguay’s 13.9 million head of cattle. The rest are raised by less-than-subsistence farmers.
Paraguay’s neighbors recently forced, and financed, initiatives to get its FMD problems under control. With mandatory vaccination, Paraguay appears to be holding the line on FMD. Despite widespread U.S. beef industry protests over the Biden administration’s intentions to normalize trade with Paraguay, beef started flowing north in January 2024.
By the end of 2024, nearly 19,000 MT of Paraguayan frozen boneless beef had been purchased by U.S. meat processors. That’s 6% of the country’s total outbound beef.
Local traders are anxious to see how exports to recently opened markets in Canada, coupled with expected entrance into Mexico, will play out. But producers claim that cattle prices still barely cover production costs, and extended dry conditions—especially in the highly cow-populated west—have affected production efficiency.

The South America wrap

From day 1, each contributor to the aggregate South American cattle sector has built its cattle industry on exports. This is not going to change—and that’s the night-and-day difference compared to North America.
While their populations are growing and domestic per-capita beef consumption is higher than global averages, don’t expect our southern neighbors to remain anything but aggressive and opportunistic exporters. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will work hard to fill beef supply voids in every corner of the world.
Most of those exports, certainly to the U.S., are low-value lean trimmings used for grinding and blending, or else they are processed for uses other than intact muscle-cut table beef. Most higher-value beef cuts are shunted to Europe under the much-coveted Hilton-Quota system.
Low-value versus high-value beef production pivots on cost of production. For much of South America, the incremental costs of moving from producing low-value to high-value beef makes it impractical—if not impossible—to turn from the former to the latter.
Domestically, outside of a few tourist niches, South Americans markets simply can’t tolerate high-value beef. And in international trade, added production costs erode most of the competitive advantage South American countries enjoy.
Unless there’s a cataclysmic event, none of the needles on those dials are going to change overnight. The U.S. beef industry should always keep a close eye on foreign competition. But like over the past 30 years, for the foreseeable future, there’s no reason to get worked up over South America.

Editor’s note: In this series of reports on global beef production, the author draws on years of studying and analyzing global beef systems. His extensive travel to many of the world’s leading beef-producing countries offers a first-hand, objective look at the challenges and opportunities beef producers worldwide face in a highly competitive protein marketplace.

Read the whole series of Global BEEF articles:

Article 1: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-series-leveling-the-playing-field-on-quality-beef
Article 2: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-roundup-focus-on-brazil-part-1
Article 3: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-roundup-focus-on-brazil-part-2
Article 4: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-roundup-focus-on-argentina-part-1
Article 5: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-roundup-focus-on-argentina-part-2
Article 6: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-roundup-focus-on-uruguay
Article 7: https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/global-beef-roundup-focus-on-paraguay