A new report has revealed that Brazil is now the biggest supplier of beef imports to China.

This means that the South American country has already surpassed Australia in terms of the volume of cow meat that it sends to the Asian country.

As reported by China Daily, the expanding middle class has been a major factor in the increasing demand for protein, including the red meat.

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 With this scenario, companies like JBS SA, Minerva SA and Marfrig Global Foods SA have been benefitting, especially that China has already ended in May 2017 its three-year-old Brazilian beef imports embargo.

"China will have a major impact on the beef trade," Miguel Gularte, head of JBS's Mercosul beef unit, revealed.

Considering the fact that the Asian giant has "hundreds of millions of people moving to consume red meat," it will be a "fantastic market for Brazil."

Based on the estimates released by the United States Department of Agriculture, China's beef imports this year is expected to take a leap of 22 percent to 1.23 million tons. This figure already includes the purchases of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Antonio Camardelli, head of Brazil's beef industry group, Abiec, disclosed that "China is emerging as the first alternative to Europe for Brazil's premium beef."

"There's still a lot of room to increase exports of gourmet beef to China," Camardelli added.

Back in July, Agriland.ie reported that China's beef and veal imports have been steadily increasing.

Of the country's total importation of the said red meat, Brazilian beef accounted for more than 30% of all Chinese imports in the six-month period, data from AHDB, the body for English beef and lamb, stated.

Tagschina, China Beef Imports, china brazil