Brazilian beef to be excluded from EU audit

Brazilian beef looks set to be excluded from EU markets from 3 September as the country will be unable to guarantee that cattle it slaughters from this date onwards are compliant with EU veterinary medicine requirements.

The ban looms after EU member states voted in May to exclude Brazil from the provisional list of countries eligible to export meat from next month, owing to animal and public health concerns arising from the nation’s antimicrobial use.

An EU audit of some sub-sectors of the Brazilian meat industry is due to take place before the end of this month, but this inspection will not assess the country’s beef sector.

The European Commission has indicated that it is excluding beef from these inspections as it impossible for Brazil to provide the necessary guarantees that cattle due for slaughter would be export eligible, even if the EU is convinced Brazilian’s regulations have been strengthened.

EU meat import requirements cover the animal’s whole life, rather than assessing just the system in place at the time of slaughter, meaning that beef’s re-admittance to EU markets cannot take place until approximately two years after compliance has been reached at the very earliest.

“To be included in the list of third countries authorised to export to the [EU], Brazil must ensure compliance with the EU requirements on the use of antimicrobials for the entire lifetime of the animals that the exported products originate from,” a Commission spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal this week.

The spokesperson stated that “due to the duration of the production cycles for the various animal species, the dates on which Brazil may be able to certify compliance with EU requirements for the different species differs.

The scope of the [upcoming] audit will cover those commodities for which Brazil has provided written guarantees of compliance at the time of the audit, i.e. poultry and honey.

“For the other commodities not included in the scope of the audit, either Brazil cannot provide the required lifetime guarantees at the time of the audit (eg beef, eggs) or exports to the Union are de facto not authorised (eg aquaculture).”

A positive outcome from this month’s audit could see Brazil avoid an EU export ban on poultry, the spokesperson added.