JBS to shift ops around Brazil, eyes tax savings

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The world's largest beef producer, Brazil's JBS <JBSS3.SA>, will shift its meat packing operations to other locations where it operates in the country, to reap tax savings, the company said on Tuesday.

The company said it would suspend operations at the Presidente Epitacio unit in Sao Paulo state due to tax inefficiencies there and shift that plant's output northwest to a unit in neighboring Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Slaughtering and deboning at some units in Parana, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Roraima states would be moved to other locations, in many cases to units in the same states. The proximity of some existing units was also behind the reconfiguration.

The company said it did not expect to resume operations at units where it was halting work, in particular as long as the current tax regime that applied to them remained in place.

(Reporting by Roberto Samora; Writing by Peter Murphy; Editing by Gary Hill)