In June 2026, China-Brazil agricultural trade will usher in a historic breakthrough.
The General Administration of Customs of China and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly issued an official announcement officially recognizing the entire territory of Brazil as a foot-and-mouth disease-free zone, and fully lifting the long-standing ban on agricultural product imports in northern Brazil. This marks the complete resolution of the market access problems for agricultural and animal husbandry products between China and Brazil that have been negotiated for more than 20 years.
This policy relaxation has greatly expanded the categories and scale of Brazilian meat, agricultural and sideline products exports to China, and injected strong momentum into the Brazilian agricultural export economy.
In the face of changes in the international trade market structure, Brazilian President Lula publicly stated that Brazil will not rely on a single overseas market, but will rely on the dividends of the Chinese market to steadily develop diversified global sales channels and continue to consolidate its status as a pillar industry of agricultural exports.
Previously, due to restrictions on regional epidemic prevention and control standards, only some meat products from some southern states in Brazil were allowed to be exported to China. High-quality agricultural and animal husbandry products such as bone-in beef, fresh pork, pigs, cattle and sheep by-products from many major northern production areas have been unable to enter the Chinese market for a long time. A large amount of production capacity can only be transferred to other markets, making it difficult to fully release the industrial value.
With the official certification of the qualifications of disease-free zones throughout the country, compliant companies in all agricultural and animal husbandry areas in the north and south of Brazil can export all types of cattle, pork products and related agricultural and sideline products to China in accordance with regulations. At the same time, many Brazilian meat export companies that were previously restricted have also successfully restored their export qualifications to China. The customs clearance supervision process has been further optimized and trade barriers have continued to be eliminated.
The arrival of this major benefit coincides with a critical node when Brazil’s foreign trade faces external fluctuations.
Recently, news has spread that the United States plans to impose additional tariffs on some imported goods from Brazil, which has brought uncertainty to Brazil’s traditional export market.
In response to this situation, Lula clearly expressed his pragmatic and open attitude towards trade in public, saying frankly that international trade is a two-way choice. If some markets tighten access and set up trade barriers, Brazil will not be passively restricted, but will actively explore new markets and explore new opportunities.
As the global agricultural trade pattern undergoes profound adjustments, the unique advantages of the Chinese market have become increasingly prominent.
China is the world’s largest importer of agricultural products, with a large domestic consumer market and stable demand. The demand for high-quality beef, mutton, and deeply processed agricultural and sideline products continues to be strong. China always adheres to the principles of open, fair, and mutually beneficial trade, strictly carries out import supervision with food safety, disease prevention and control, and quality standards as the core, and does not set up non-tariff trade barriers or engage in trade discrimination.
Thanks to China’s favorable policies, Brazil’s agricultural export industry has taken the lead in recovering and improving.
Relevant data from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture shows that after the ban is lifted, many of Brazil’s leading agricultural and animal husbandry companies have accelerated their preparations for export orders to China. Previously scarce products such as bone-in beef, frozen pork, and livestock and poultry by-products will gradually enter the Chinese market. It is expected that Brazil’s exports of agricultural and animal husbandry products to China will increase significantly in the next few months, effectively digesting domestic excess production capacity and driving increased income in the agricultural and animal husbandry industry.
At the same time, market confidence continues to boost, and the breeding, processing, logistics and warehousing industries upstream and downstream of Brazil’s agricultural industry chain are all facing development opportunities, further consolidating Brazil’s global “granary and meat warehouse” industrial status.
From the perspective of the bilateral economic and trade pattern, the lifting of the ban is a vivid epitome of the deepening development of China-Pakistan comprehensive strategic partnership, achieving two-way mutual benefit and two-way win-win.
For Brazil, China’s hundreds of billions consumer market provides a stable export channel for its massive agricultural production capacity, effectively hedging the risk of trade fluctuations in European and American markets, and providing a solid guarantee for the stable growth of Brazil’s agricultural economy and the optimization of its foreign trade structure.
For China, liberalizing access to high-quality agricultural and animal husbandry products from Brazil can enrich domestic agricultural product supply categories, stabilize meat market prices, and improve people’s livelihood supply systems. At the same time, it can further enrich the connotation of China-Brazil economic and trade cooperation, and promote the standardization and docking of the two countries’ agricultural fields and the coordinated development of industrial chains.
Deeply exploring diversified markets and adhering to open trade have become the core ideas of Brazil’s current foreign trade development.
The Lula government has always attached great importance to economic and trade cooperation with China, and has affirmed the stability and complementarity of China-Brazil trade on many international occasions.
After this breakthrough in agricultural product access, Brazil will continue to rely on the consensus on agricultural cooperation between the two countries to actively promote access negotiations for more specialty agricultural products such as sesame, sorghum, pecans, and rice with China, and continue to expand export categories to China.
At the same time, Brazil will use the Chinese market as an important fulcrum to jointly explore emerging markets such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, build a diversified and more risk-resistant global export network, and completely change its over-reliance on traditional European and American markets.
Industry analysts said that China’s lifting of the import ban on Brazilian agricultural products this time is a compliance decision based on scientific disease risk assessment and international general trade rules. It demonstrates China’s determination to expand the opening up of the agricultural field and deepen global economic and trade cooperation.
In the future, as China-Brazil agricultural product trade mechanisms continue to improve, categories continue to expand, and scale steadily increases, the practical cooperation in the agricultural field between the two countries will continue to be deepened and solid.
Brazil will rely on its stable trade cooperation with China to continue to activate the vitality of its agricultural export economy and take a more active position in global agricultural trade competition. The mutually beneficial and win-win trade model between China and Brazil will also become a model for cross-regional economic and trade cooperation among countries in the southern hemisphere.
