Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 8/15/16


China and Argentina have renewed the tenets of their existing beef trade accord, cementing China as Argentina’s second most important export market for beef, behind the European Union, according to media reports.

The deal comes despite an incident earlier this summer in which the Chinese government destroyed a large shipment of Argentinian beef that it said tested positive for the presence of a banned antibiotic. The company involved reportedly showed that the positive test was an outlier among an otherwise solid food safety record.

The value of meat exports from Argentina to China is about $200 million a year. About 80 percent of Argentina’s exports to China are agricultural in nature.

In 2015, China imported more than 40,000 metric tons of Argentine beef, accounting for 36 percent of Argentina’s total exports. The figure represents a 110 percent increase over the previous year.

For more stories, go to www.meatingplace.com.