January 22, 2008

Brazil, Russia establish meat trade protocols

After six months of negotiations, Russia and Brazil agreed on a protocol by which Russia can guarantee the origin of Brazilian meat imports.

Ignacio Kroetz, Brazil's secretary of sanitary defense, said that the new protocol centers on an electronic verification system which will aid Russia in verifying the origin of the imported meat.

The protocol also requires the application of special labels to specify the producer and affirm compliance with Russia's safety standards.

Prior to meat shipments, Brazil will handle sole responsibility in inspecting its exports to Russia. Russian officials will only examine the exported products at their destination points.

At the start of this year, Russia re-opened its borders to meat imports from eight Brazilian states after concluding that they had sufficiently controlled outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.

In 2007, Brazil exported 945,000 tonnes of meat, (beef, pork and chicken) to Russia, with revenues of US$1.9 billion, up 23.87 percent over 2006, according to the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry.

The Russian market accounts for 15 percent of Brazil's beef exports and 70 percent of Brazil's hog exports.