December 20, 2012

Brazil's beef exports face international ban

Due to concerns of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, Brazil's beef exports have banned from Japan, China, South Africa, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.

This move comes after Brazil's recent report, which revealed that a cow in Parana state was found to contain proteins that cause BSE. Even though the incident occurred in 2010, Brazil did not make the report public until December 2012, which increased the fears among the importing nations.

Brazil blamed the delay on a laboratory backlog and priorities.

Brazil's Agriculture Ministry said that the finding does not present any risk to public health or animal sanitary safety as the animal did not 'manifest the disease nor die of it.

Among the nations that have imposed the beef import ban, Saudi Arabia is among the top ten importers of Brazilian beef. Egypt has imposed a ban on beef imports from Parana.

Brazil is the world's leading exporter of beef and the country has shipped beef worth US$4.2 billion for the first nine months of this year, up 9% from 2011.