October 25, 2010

Chinese officials to check Brazilian pork plants

A long-awaited delegation of Chinese officials is assigned to begin inspecting Brazil's pork slaughterhouses in November, the president of the Brazilian pork exporters association (Abipecs) said.

Although Chinese officials inspected more than a dozen Brazilian plants four years ago and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a protocol with Chinese officials in 2008, China's doors still remain firmly shut to pork imports from Brazil, the world's fourth largest exporter of the meat.

"The inspections are a vital technical hurdle to overcome to begin exports to the giant Chinese market," Abipecs' Pedro de Camargo Neto said earlier this week, without giving details of an expected timeframe to begin exports.

The delegation of technical specialists was supposed to inspect animal health and conditions at plants in July and August, but the inspectors postponed the trip until early next month.

Although Brazil's chicken exporters recently began to export to China, the country's pork shipments still remain locked out of China.

China supplanted the US as Brazil's top export partner last year with a whopping US$36.1 billion in trade from just US$1.5 billion in 1999.

Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture was unavailable to further comment.

Camargo said exporters aren't just waiting for China. They also are negotiating with other governments in Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan. "We are keeping all options open," Camargo said.