Brazil rejects beef safety claims
16 June 2007
Article published on 16 June 2007 in The Press and Journal of Aberdeen, a regional newspaper covering the north of Scotland.
Brazil has dismissed the findings of an undercover investigation that raises serious concerns about the safety of the beef it ships to Europe and which has prompted new calls for it to be banned.
Demitrio Carvalho, the head of the trade section at the Brazilian Embassy in London, said a report from the Irish Farmers Association and Irish Farmers Journal was not an independent nor officially recognised assessment of his country's beef industry. Mr Carvalho has, however, accepted the European Commission does have concerns about "some aspects" of the Brazilian beef sector that should be the "subject of improvements".
The Irish team on a week-long visit to Brazil from May 12-19 found significant alleged abuses of production rules on beef to be shipped to Europe. This included the illegal removal of cattle identity tags by farmers and ranchers, little or no traceability of animals on the 42 farms they visited, poor veterinary medicine records and adherence to drug withdrawal periods and no movement checks to restrict beef exports from cattle from the three Brazilian states where foot-and-mouth disease is still ravaging and which are allegedly banned from shipping meat to Europe.
Mr Carvalho repeatedly refused to discuss the Irish findings, saying that Brazil only recognised reports from official government bodies as defined in World Trade Organisation rules. He also said Ireland - the EU's biggest beef producer - had a vested interest in removing cheaper Brazilian beef from the European market.
Mr Carvalho said Brazil had in recent years developed a "very productive dialogue" with the EC on "possible problems" that its beef might have in meeting European requirements. He added: "We do not see a major problem. Whenever the EC finds a specific point this is then the subject of a review. What is important is that, by and large Brazil, is fulfilling the requirements of the EC. We are investing a lot in terms of equipment and human resources to improve our systems and that is gradually being recognised by the EC."
Mr Carvalho dismissed the Irish report as a series of unfounded allegations about the farms that had been visited. He insisted Brazilian beef was a quality product, but the official could not explain why the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand continue to ban it.
All Mr Carvalho would say was: "Other markets are enjoying Brazilian beef; that's the fact of the matter. We are very happy to have been exporting from areas duly authorised by the EU. More than 150 other countries are importing Brazilian beef and in our view Brazilian beef has not been responsible for the transmission of any disease."
Brazil has dismissed the findings of an undercover investigation that raises serious concerns about the safety of the beef it ships to Europe and which has prompted new calls for it to be banned.
Demitrio Carvalho, the head of the trade section at the Brazilian Embassy in London, said a report from the Irish Farmers Association and Irish Farmers Journal was not an independent nor officially recognised assessment of his country's beef industry. Mr Carvalho has, however, accepted the European Commission does have concerns about "some aspects" of the Brazilian beef sector that should be the "subject of improvements".
The Irish team on a week-long visit to Brazil from May 12-19 found significant alleged abuses of production rules on beef to be shipped to Europe. This included the illegal removal of cattle identity tags by farmers and ranchers, little or no traceability of animals on the 42 farms they visited, poor veterinary medicine records and adherence to drug withdrawal periods and no movement checks to restrict beef exports from cattle from the three Brazilian states where foot-and-mouth disease is still ravaging and which are allegedly banned from shipping meat to Europe.
Mr Carvalho repeatedly refused to discuss the Irish findings, saying that Brazil only recognised reports from official government bodies as defined in World Trade Organisation rules. He also said Ireland - the EU's biggest beef producer - had a vested interest in removing cheaper Brazilian beef from the European market.
Mr Carvalho said Brazil had in recent years developed a "very productive dialogue" with the EC on "possible problems" that its beef might have in meeting European requirements. He added: "We do not see a major problem. Whenever the EC finds a specific point this is then the subject of a review. What is important is that, by and large Brazil, is fulfilling the requirements of the EC. We are investing a lot in terms of equipment and human resources to improve our systems and that is gradually being recognised by the EC."
Mr Carvalho dismissed the Irish report as a series of unfounded allegations about the farms that had been visited. He insisted Brazilian beef was a quality product, but the official could not explain why the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand continue to ban it.
All Mr Carvalho would say was: "Other markets are enjoying Brazilian beef; that's the fact of the matter. We are very happy to have been exporting from areas duly authorised by the EU. More than 150 other countries are importing Brazilian beef and in our view Brazilian beef has not been responsible for the transmission of any disease."