Argentine Beef Imports to the Rescue?

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University

Could beef imports from Argentina reduce beef prices in the U.S.?

Argentina is the sixth largest beef producing country and the fifth largest beef exporting country, accounting for roughly 6 percent of global beef exports. Argentine beef production is about 27 percent of total U.S. production. In recent years, Argentine beef exports have been growing with the majority of beef exports going to China along with Israel, the E.U. and the U.S.

Argentina is the ninth largest source of beef imports in the U.S., accounting for about 2.1 percent of total U.S. beef imports thus far in 2025. U.S. imports of Argentine beef have been growing in recent years (recovery in Argentina) and were up 41.7 percent year over year through July (the latest data available since the shutdown).

How much more beef can the U.S. import from Argentina?

It's not clear how much capacity to increase beef exports exists currently in Argentina.  Domestic beef consumption in Argentina uses 70-75 percent of total beef production in the country.  If, for example, the U.S. doubled imports over 2024 levels, it would likely mostly be at the expense of domestic consumption in Argentina or other export markets for Argentine beef.  Such an increase in imports from Argentina would have a negligible impact on the total supply of beef in the U.S. market.   In fact, if the U.S. took all of the projected 2025 Argentine beef exports (not likely), it would represent less than 2.5 percent of the total U.S. beef supply.

The Impact in U.S. beef markets

The majority of Argentine beef imports are lean processing beef used for ground beef production.  This beef is quite similar to beef imported from Brazil (and most other import sources).   Imports from Argentina are less than 10 percent of the imports from Brazil.  Increasing imports from Argentina would have a very slight impact in offsetting the reduction in imports from Brazil expected because of the sharp increase in tariffs on Brazil.  The impacts on beef imports from Brazil are not evident in the January -July import data and we have not had any updates since then. The August data should have been released in early October. 

Record high cattle and beef prices are occurring despite record beef imports.  Increased beef imports (mostly lean processing beef) partially offsets decreased non-fed beef production in the U.S., helping to moderate sharply higher ground beef prices and increasing utilization of fatty trimmings from U.S. fed cattle.  Argentina is a relatively minor source of beef imports and potential increases would not significantly change the overall supply of beef in the U.S. In short, it does not appear that increasing beef imports from Argentina would have any significant impacts on U.S. beef prices. At most, it might have a very slight (and probably undetectable) impact of moderating expected future increases in U.S. ground beef prices.