In fact, most American hamburgers are not entirely an American.
Patties grilled in the backyard of grilling or inverted in fast food restaurants are often a mixture of minced beef, both domestic and imported from other countries, especially Brazil. In school cafes and domestic kitchens, this global mixture of beef is fried, fried and spilled into millions of tacos, meat balls and lasagnas.
Now, the dismantling of President Trump’s global trading system through its storage of wide tariffs leads to a shift in a shop that could make winners from countries like Brazil, which produce commodities by world desires.
As for beef – decisive for satisfying the hunger of Americans in cheap meat cuts – tariffs will improve Brazilian beef more expensive.
At the same time, however, Brazil is suddenly a more attractive source for China, another huge consumer of beef, because its trade war with the United States – and the high tariffs that two nations imposed on each other – left China’s search for other countries with sufficient supply of cheap meat.
While the American Masapackers, most likely to anticipate rising prices, have been supplied with Brazilian beef in recent weeks, Brazilian exports to China have increased in April.
As a result, the prices of commodity beef from Brazil have increased by about 20 percent since the beginning of April, commercial experts say.
“From our point of view, it has never been more favorable for Brazil,” said Luiz Gustavo Oliveira, Vice President of the Brazilian mass company Grupo Fribal. “And the world has its door open to Brazilian meat.”
On the other hand, American meat processors are trying to deal with higher beef prices and what they mean for their lower lines and how much their customers will be asked to pay.
In an effort to keep the prices down, Kent Sander, whose family owns a meat processing trade in rural Indiana, began to mix pork that is cheaper, to the beef hamburgers it sells. “I try to give people a affordable option,” he said.
Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world that has exceeded the United States over the past 20 years. With large rows of agricultural land, where pastvit can be huge herds of cattle and reduce working and other related costs, Brazilian rankers conquered the global market production of beef on a larger scale and much cheaper than its competitors.
China and the United States are the first two buyers of Brazilian beef, and both countries have sharply increased their purchases in recent years to keep up with growing domestic tastes for slender, cheap meat that farmers cannot satisfy.
“Brazil is in a unique position,” Roberto Perosa, President of the Brazilian Association for Maso Balance and a former Brazilian Government Secretary. “No other country in the world can satisfy this demand.”
While the United States is still the largest producer of beef in the world, according to American experts from the American industry, its cattle – fattened on soybean or corn diet – is more suitable for expensive, marbled steaks known for its rich taste.
Part of this cattle is defeated to produce cheaper slices of beef. However, a large part is turned into premium steaks, such as Filet Mignon or rib, which are consumed at home and on steakhouses or exported to the rest of the world. China, the third largest buyer of American beef, imported meat worth $ 1.6 billion in 2024.
To eliminate cheaper ground beef that many Americans eat daily, American mass packages mix a more tourist, local beef with slimmer, grass varieties from abroad.
“Not all beef is the same,” said Glynn Tonsor, professor of agricultural economy at Kansas State University. “And in the US we consume more ground beef than we produce.”
To satisfy demand, the United States increased the import of beef from Brazil from 2023 to 2024 by more than 50 percent and reached a record $ 1.3 billion.
However, Brazilian beef is now subject to 10 % of the tariff that Mr. Trump has signed up to almost every American business partner and the longer the tariffs persist, the more likely they are to transform a global beef trade permanently.
President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva of Brazil recently said that he did not want to “decide” between China and the United States, the two largest business partners in the country.
“I want to deal with everyone,” said Mr. Lula, who is to plan to visit China this month. “I want to sell and buy.”
However, the highest foreign policy advisor Mr. Lula, Celso Amorim, told Brazilian newspapers that China now offers Brazil “more opportunities and less risks” than the United States.
And after China canceled export licenses of more than 390 US meat processing companies in reprisal measures for US tariffs, Brazil said the Minister of Agriculture that the Latin American country was eager to fill in the gap.
“Someone will have to add this meat that the Americans have delivered,” said Minister Carlos Fávaro.
In China in recent years, cheaper pork has been preferred for a long time for steaks and beef pots as the middle class of the Earth grew.
Chinese imports of beef in 2010 increased from less than $ 100 million to more than $ 13 billion in 2024, while the country bought nearly half of its beef from Brazil last year.
Most of Brazilian beef have already been subjected to steep American tariffs, first introduced in the 90’s years to make the American cattle ranks shield in front of the cheaper imported beef. Mr. Trump’s recent tariffs have now moved a fee to 36 percent. By comparison, Brazilian beef faces only 12 percent in China.
Given that China mostly stopped imports of American beef, supplier chains for “this commodity was completely shaken,” said André Ferreira, maritime specialist in Brazil in DMS Logistics. “So China will now look at Brazil differently.”
Some Brazilian beef manufacturers are already mapping ambitious plans for the future.
For Grupo Fibal, which increases, killing and beef packages for domestic and international markets, it flourishes in recent years because exports to China and the United States have increased sharply.
Now the company plans to increase its herd of cattle to 60,000 out of 40,000 to the next year, partly using even stronger demands of the affected tariffs. “The moment is now,” said Oliveira from Grupo Fribal.
But breeding, breeding and fattening more cattle for beef requires time and money, which makes such plans by long -term bet that demand will continue to grow.
Brazil, a huge nation with a slight climate preferring agriculture, has more cattle than humans. Since the 1970s, extensive ranching and family agriculture have spread throughout the area in the country, including the Amazon rainforest.
According to Safras & Mercado, counseling, the back-to-back drought was chosen.
And even though some Brazilian rankers can increase production in the short term, they can try to supply more beef abroad, because the main Brazilian ports are already in full capacity.
In the United States, trade experts claim that American farmers will be heavily pushed to replace the import of beef from Brazil and struggle with other challenges in front of the tariffs. American cattle supplies dropped to a 73 -year minimum, partly due to drought and rising animal feed costs.
The demand for cheaper beef is expected to increase because economic nervousness will pull out US consumers from expensive cuts and towards hamburgers and increase prices. According to the US Labor Statistics Office, in US cities in US cities have climbed 43 percent over the past five years.
Even tariffs will most likely continue to rely on Brazilian beef because there is no other major source for the US market, experts said.
This can be good news for Brazilian Ranch cattle, said Mr. Perosa from the Association of Balance Balance, but not for American consumers. “It’s an American company that will have to result in an account,” he said.
