São Paulo — A safety scare, political scandal, export bans — 2017’s headlines could scarcely be worse for Brazilian meat producers. Yet right now they are enjoying stellar market conditions for beef. Prices that meatpackers such as JBS SA, Marfrig Global Foods and Minerva pay for cattle had the biggest decline in two decades this year. Meanwhile, wholesale prices have been mostly flat, fetching a premium of about 38% on cattle, the most since at least 2008, according to data from agricultural consulting firm Scot Consultoria. "We have never seen a situation like this," said Mariane Crespolini, a researcher at Cepea, the University of Sao Paulo’s agriculture research unit, in a telephone interview. So what’s going on? Domestic beef demand has shown some signs of recovery, according to Cepea, even after two years of recession and the so-called Carne Fraca ("Weak Flesh") investigation mounted by federal investigators, who in March went public with allegations of spoiled meat and briber...
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