May 2, 2011
European Commission vigilant on Brazil's meat
In response to a report from Russian veterinary authorities, the European Commission (EC) will continue to closely monitor meat imports from Brazil.
An EC spokesman said it had in the last two months carried out two inspections of Brazil's meat industry. A third team of inspectors from the EC's Food and Veterinary Office is due to fly out in the coming weeks. Russia inspected 29 Brazilian meat processing plants at the start of this month and banned 13 of them from exporting meat to it. There are now 27 Brazilian meat plants prevented from shipping beef, pork and poultry to Russia after 14 were banned last year.
Inspectors from Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor agency found problems with 262 export shipments - representing 8.5% of the trade at the time of their checks from April 4-18. They branded Brazil's laboratory controls as "extremely ineffective", adding Brazil had been "groundlessly" issuing veterinary certificates saying meat exports complied with Russian requirements, despite its failure to complete various tests. They also discovered residue tests for mercury, pesticides, dioxins and radiation had not been carried out for three years.
The EC is facing calls from various farming organisations to again tighten controls on Brazilian meat imports and to suspend trade talks which could see a huge increase in the amount of beef, pork and poultry shipped from there to Europe.
The talks with the Mercosur nations - Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela - are due to resume this week. The EC has touted giving them increased market access for agricultural goods in return for Europe being allowed to export more industrial goods and services to the five South American states.
FVO inspectors were in Brazil between March 23 and April 3 to carry out checks on its hygiene and traceability controls. Another team was in Brazil from February 21 to March 2 looking at its controls on veterinary medicinal products, residues and contaminants. Their reports will be published soon.
