Brazil reopens market to 900 tons of Patagonian sheep meat after two-month halt

Argentina's lucrative sheep meat exports to Brazil are resuming after a nearly two-month suspension. The market closure, triggered by the detection of classical scrapie cases in Santa Fe and Entre Ríos provinces, had pushed the sector to its operational limits.

Juan Ucelli, executive director of the Chamber of Refrigeration Plants of Patagonia (Cafropat), confirmed the reopening after receiving official notification from Senasa, Argentina's agricultural health authority. He noted that while the news is positive, the market will not recover immediately. "We were at the limit of the cold storage capacity. It's good news, even though we lost two months due to a problem nobody sought," Ucelli stated.

The disease, a fatal neurodegenerative pathology in sheep and goats, had never been detected in Argentina before, which held the country's scrapie-free status. Its appearance in April disrupted this status and led to export destinations blocking Argentine products, necessitating new sanitary certificates for trade partners.

The impact was particularly severe for Patagonia, a region that did not register any cases but accounts for the majority of the country's sheep meat production and exports. While Tunisia reopened three weeks prior, Brazil's reopening proved more frustrating due to prolonged delays in formal authorization despite indications of an imminent agreement. This bottleneck forced frigorificos to continue slaughtering until available space was exhausted, halting the planned sequence of operations just as the most significant volume of merchandise was ready.

The detected cases involved animals imported from Paraguay between 2021 and 2022, specifically of the Dorper and Santa Inés breeds. The animals died in February and May of 2025 and were registered in the National Registry of Imported Ruminant Breeders.