China will exempt 14 exporters of Brazilian chicken, including major producers BRF and JBS Group, from anti-dumping tariffs – provided they sell chicken in China at an undisclosed minimum price, Reuters reports.

The news agency says the exemption is the outcome of months of negotiations between the Chinese authorities and Brazilian producers of chicken, after the Chinese authorities began investigating in August 2017 suspicions that the producers were dumping chicken in China.

China will impose tariffs of between 17.8 percent and 32.4 percent on imports of Brazilian chicken for the next five years, Reuters says, citing the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Separately, a Brazilian newspaper, O Globo, quotes a spokesman for the Brazilian Animal Protein Association as saying the Sino-Brazilian agreement means most chicken Brazil sells in China will be imported tariff-free.

Brazil shipped 438,000 tonnes of chicken to China last year and the association expects to maintain the flow of shipments to China this year, O Globo says.