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Another Brazilian Packer

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Beef News
Second Brazilian beef co. enters U.S. market

By Arnaldo de Sousa on 1/2/2008 for Meatingplace.com




Following the lead of competing Brazilian beef company JBS S.A., Marfrig Frigoríficos e Comércio de Alimentos S.A., Brazil's third largest beef exporter, has stepped into the U.S. meat market by way of acquiring Mirab S.A. of Argentina.

The $36 million purchase was completed by Marfrig´s subsidiary, Argentine Breeders & Packers S.A. (AB&P), company spokesman Altair Albuquerque told Meatingplace.com.

Buenos Aires-based Mirab is Argentina's leading manufacturer of meat snacks including beef jerky. It exports to several countries including the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Mirab imports, packs and distributes its products in the United States through its wholly owned subsidiary, Mirab USA Inc., based in Taylor, Mich. Mirab USA is the world's largest processor and distributor of private label beef jerky, supplying major retail outlets in the United States and Canada. It also sells and distributes under its proprietary brands, "Pecos Bill's," "Farmer's Market" and "Rancher's Brand."

"The acquisition of Mirab is considered strategic in strengthening Marfrig's participation in the value-added meat snacks market [as] Marfrig already has three meat snack production facilities located in Brazil and Uruguay. As well as giving the group a production platform in Argentina, it marks the group's first investment in North America with the acquisition of both a packaging and distribution facility," said Ricardo Florence, Marfrig's director of investor relations.

Fourth largest beef producer

According to Marfrig´s Web site, the company is the fourth largest beef producer in the world. Marfrig produces and distributes fresh, frozen and processed beef products to customers in Brazil and abroad. The company also distributes other types of meat and food products, including frozen pre-cooked potato chips, pork and lamb cuts, frozen vegetables, poultry, fish, ready meals and pasta. Marfrig's product mix includes beef cuts, special beef cuts, frozen cooked beef, canned beef and beef jerky.

Marfrig's net income totaled $17.8 million (U.S.) in the third quarter of fiscal 2007, up 142 percent from the $7.3 million recorded in the year-earlier period and 325 percent higher than the $4.2 million recorded in the second quarter of 2007, reflecting the increase in sales of higher value-added products, price increase transfers and better efficiency in the production process. The net margin stood at 3.9 percent, versus 2.3 percent in the third quarter of 2006 and 1.0 percent in the second quarter of 2007.

Sao Paulo-based JBS, Brazil's leading beef exporter, purchased Greeley, Co.-based Swift & Co. in May 2007. In doing so, it became the largest processor and exporter of beef in the world.
 

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ARGENTINA Ranchers quit cattle raising

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA ― While Argentines consume approximately 154 lbs per capita of beef each year, rapidly escalating grain prices and export caps are driving many of their cattle ranchers to sell their herds and farm more lucrative crops, such as soybeans, instead, according to the Associated Press.

Ranchers have switched from grazing to grain on about 7.4 million acres since 2005 — a 10% decline in ranchland, said Pablo Adreani, an economic analyst with AgriPAC Consultores, an agricultural consultancy in Buenos Aires.

Export caps imposed by former President Nestor Kirchner as an anti-inflation measure have flooded the local market with meat, keeping beef prices low while soybean, corn and wheat prices soar, the article said. This trend has driven Argentina, the world's biggest beef exporter until the 1950s, to fourth in U.S. Department of Agriculture rankings, behind Brazil, Australia and India. The U.S.D.A. predicted Argentina will fall to fifth place behind Canada in the coming year.
 

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