June 6, 2007

Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor discovers irregularities on Brazil's meat quality control 

Russian veterinary and sanitary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said it has detected serious mishandling on some of Brazil's meat producing quality control system, said the agency's head, Sergei Dankvert.

Dankvert said that even Russian veterinary experts were actually monitoring Brazilian meat plants, the slaughterhouses were still unable to meet Russia's standards for meat. He said Rosselkhoznadzor had initially intended to revoke licences all Brazilian meat exporters but decided not to do so in order "not to pose an obstacle to the trade and work of reliable Brazilian meat suppliers".

Dankvert said Rosselkhoznadzor has recently barred meat shipments from 16 Brazilian slaughterhouses which are suspected of using meat coming from foot-and-mouth-disease regions, which is strictly forbidden by the two countries' bilateral agreements. Russia has also discovered at least 40 fake meat exporting contracts used by Brazilian companies.

Russia has banned beef and pork imports from eight Brazilian states in December 2005, after FMD outbreaks were detected in the central-western Mato Grosso do Sul and neighbouring Parana states. Russia lifted the ban on Mato Grosso's pork and beef imports in August 2006 which led to an absolute lifting on all states except for Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana.