August 18, 2006

Three Brazilian meat plants await approval to export beef to the US

Brazilian beef sales to the US could increase by as much as 20 percent if it goes ahead with plans to grant licenses to three more meatpackers to export processed Brazilian beef to the US, according to a press report in a local newspaper on Wednesday (Aug 16). 

Currently, there are 20 plants authorised to sell meat to the US, said Nelmon Oliveira da Costa, the director of the animal products inspection department at Brazil's Agricultural Ministry.

The three plants could be added to the current 20 if they are approved by US agricultural inspectors who arrived this week to evaluate sanitary conditions.

US inspectors would also check sanitary conditions at the Sao Paulo plant of Brazil's second largest beef exporter, Bertin, whose license was suspended last week due to a US complaint about a shipment.

If the plant passes inspection, it could return to exporting beef within 90 days, otherwise, it may be banned from exports for a full year.

However, Agricultural Ministry officials have said that the problem did not originate at the factory but in transit.

Sanitary conditions at Brazilian meatpacking plants have been a thorny issue between Brazil and the US.  Last year, the US inspection team banned meat from plants of some of the country's major meatpackers.

The suspension was later extended to 28 Brazilian meatpackers, as the US asked Brazil to revise its technical procedures and control systems for meat-processing.

In 2005, the US bought roughly US$205.7 million of processed beef from Brazil. In the first seven months of this year, the US has purchased US$167.5 million of the product.