"What we have to do is produce a more sophisticated product, with more value added," Queiroz said. "At the moment, our beef is shipped as a commodity and so is priced as a commodity. We need to start shipping ready-cut steaks that go straight onto the supermarket shelves."
That's what Queiroz's company, Minerva, Brazil's fourth-largest beef exporter, is doing. It has targeted Sweden and Finland as its first markets and plans to expand to the Middle East.
"By shipping ready-packaged beef, we can improve the markup by between 10 and 20 percent," he said.
A top Brazilian priority is to include agribusiness in a new round of world trade talks agreed to last year in Doha, Qatar. But many in the business doubt the rich, industrialized nations will open their markets or end subsidies that protect their farmers from the cheaper Brazilian competition.
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