SAO PAULO (Dow Jones) -- Brazil will likely surpass Australia as the world’s leading revenue producer from global beef trading in 2006 and 2007, and much of that is thanks to emerging market nations like Iran.

“It used to be that you planned your export business around reaching the U.S., Europe and Japan, but today it’s North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. These are the markets where demand is growing. That’s where we want to be,” said Marcus Pratini de Moraes, president of the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association, or Abiec, and Brazil’s former agriculture minister in the 1990s.

Brazil is selling beef in bulk volumes to countries few consider when it comes to international trade. Whether it’s Iran or Kazakhstan, Brazil plans to be there again in 2007. Iran imported over 61,000 metric tons of fresh Brazilian beef in the last 11 months, up by more than 500% on the year. Industry experts said that Iran was increasing beef purchases this year on fears of a U.S. air strike because of the uranium enrichment dispute between Tehran and Washington. Kazakhstan, a former Soviet-bloc nation, imported more than 6,000 tons of fresh beef in the first 11 months of the year, compared with around 500 tons in the same period in 2005. Beef is the No. 1 item Brazil ships to Kazakhstan.

These are small markets, but many of them combined have made Brazil the world leader in beef exports by volume. “Brazil is becoming the main low-cost provider to a lot of these nations. We’ve become one of the only games in town for grass-fed cattle and that’s attractive,” said Antonio Jorge Camardelli, an animal health specialist and executive director at Abiec. “Next stop is Morocco.”

There are other reasons Brazil is seeing growth. Countries like Uruguay are buying more Brazilian beef in order to export their own home-grown beef to top-paying markets like the U.S. Brazil doesn’t export fresh beef to the U.S. because of sanitary issues, but Uruguay does. And the more domestic beef that Brazil’s southern neighbor ships north, the more imported beef it needs to supply the local market. That residual business suits Brazil beef exporters just fine, Camardelli said.

Overall, Brazil should export between 5% and 10% more beef in 2007 than the estimated 1.8 million metric tons expected in 2006.

Marketing plans

Brazil beef exporters rely on Abiec to promote their wares internationally. In 2007, Abiec intends to showcase Brazilian beef in more developing markets, including Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Morocco in February.

Exporters want to introduce what they call the “Brazilian way to eat meat.” which is often salted with sea salt and consumed with a cold caipirinha, a sugarcane-alcohol drink mixed with fresh-squeezed lime.

Moreover, trading companies are trying to do away with the middle man by marketing their products directly to the end consumer through company-owned distribution channels. Moraessaid some of the major Brazil beef exporters have distribution in the U.K. and Portugal and have third-party partnerships in mainland Europe.

“But more and more we are becoming direct sellers, and that’s good for us because it means our product arrives to the customer at a lower cost,” Moraes said.