February 13, 2008

 

Brazil prepares revised list of cattle ranchers to supply beef to EU

 

 

Brazil's government announced Tuesday that a new list of cattle ranches permitted to export beef to the EU is subject for completion.

 

Silas Brasileiro, the executive secretary of the Agriculture Ministry, guaranteed that the ranches would meet all EU requirements.

 

IN late 2007, the EU required all ranches to abide by a strict, new animal tracking and certification programme in order to sell beef to the EU market.

 

Brazil complied and in mid-January sent European Agriculture and Food Safety officials a list of more than 2,000 ranches, which the EU completely banned.

 

Brasileiro did not explain why the original list was way beyond the required number of certified ranches.

 

The agriculture ministry spokesperson said the new list would include around 600 ranches, despite the requirement of 300 cattle raisers only.

 

The revised property list, which has documentation on how the ranches met the certification and tracking requirements, would be presented to EU officials by Kroetz later this week.

 

EU animal health inspectors are expected in Brazil to check out the properties late next week.

 

The new tracking system requires cattle ranches to have a complete record of their cattle purchases, health records, parentage and purchase records.

 

Meanwhile, Finnish meat product company, Atria, expects beef prices to go up by 30 to 50 percent in the EU markets if Brazilian beef will be banned for a long time.

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