(5 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Uberaba, Brazil – 27 April 2024
1. Various of bulls being presented at the opening of ExpoZebu Fair
ANNOTATION: At this cattle fair record prices are being set for cattle, reflecting a boom in Brazil’s agrobusiness sector.
2. President of Brazilian Association of Zebu Breeders (ABCZ) speaking at the opening of ExpoZebu Fair
3. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Gabriel Garcia Cid, President of Brazilian Association of Zebu Breeders (ABCZ):
“We have reason to celebrate our livestock industry. Brazil exported more than 2 million tons of fresh beef last year, a historical record. Today we are the largest exporter of this protein.”
4. Various of cows at the fair
STORYLINE:
While Brazil’s economy for the most part has been muddling along over the past decade, its agribusiness sector has boomed, much of it coming from beef.
Brazil’s main cattle fair, ExpoZebu set a record for sales at elite cattle auctions, with high-priced cows and bulls used for breeding, a sector that is increasingly turning to biotechnology to improve efficiency.
ExpoZebu is an annual gathering in Uberaba, state of Minas Gerais that bills itself as the world’s biggest Zebu fair.
Set inside a bucolic complex, one can visit stands of local laboratories that curate embryos, sell semen and conduct DNA testing to prove parentage of calves born from in vitro fertilization.
It is also home to the prestigious auction Elo de Raça, where Viatina-19, the most expensive cow ever sold at auction, according to Guinness World Records, has been sold three times, reaching a total value of 21 million reais ($4.1 million).
Breeders in this area are betting big that Viatina-19 and other behemoth bovines are key to boosting production in Brazil — already the world’s biggest beef exporter.
Fabiana Marques Borrelli, director of Casa Branca Agropastoril owns part of Viatina-19 and the cow Donna, this year’s starlet.
“The work Casa Branca does is genetic improvement, so it doesn’t make sense for us to keep everything with us.” Said Borelli after the auction: “Her (the cow Donna) production with several different bulls is unique. We believe she is a very valuable donor.”
Next to one of her clones, Donna was praised by her structure and consistency producing top-quality offspring, no matter the bull.
The 33% of her sold in the auction put her total value at 15.5 million reais ($3 million) — behind only Viatina-19 in Brazil’s history.
Brazil is already the world’s biggest beef exporter. In 2023, it exported 2,5 million tons of beef, the most since records began in 1997 and more than double the average of the 2000s.
Since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2023, his administration has worked to lift restrictions on the country’s beef exports.
AP Video by Mario Lobao and Tatiana Pollastri
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