Iraq set to resume Brazilian beef imports
The Iraqi team will inspect beef processing facilities in the country, including a testing facility, slaughterhouses and transportation facilities. Among a number of other countries, Iraq banned imports of Brazilian beef in 2012, following the detection of Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE) in an animal.
Bans remain in place
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait still forbid the import of Brazilian beef. Last month Egypt imposed a partial ban on Brazilian beef, forbidding the import of meat from the state of Mato Grosso, when a BSE-infected animal was found there.
The UAE is currently the only Gulf Arab country which imports significant quantities of Brazilian beef, buying just over 7,000 tonnes, worth nearly US$35m, in the first four months of 2014. Iran remains the largest regional importer, at 44,200 tonnes, worth US$200m, in the same period.
Regarding the Iraqi visit, Antonio Jorge Camardelli, chairman of the Association of Brazilian Beef Exporters (Abiec), said: “At the end of the visit, they should probably complete the process of lifting the ban. Iraq is a crucial market for Brazil. If it weren’t, we would not have had a barbecue in Erbil last year.
“Iraq is gradually attaining political stability, and it has always been a major buyer from Brazil. Its location affords it visibility. We did not see a reason for imports to be banned, since we were developing at full tilt in the region. We are expecting imports will be resumed,” he added.
Brazil highlights safety
The Brazilian beef industry has been keen to emphasise the country’s beef is safe to eat, despite these instances of BSE. Both the 2012 infection and the one discovered in May were incidents of “atypical” BSE, meaning the disease arose spontaneously, and not as a result of eating feed containing infected nerve tissue from cattle.
This type of feed has been banned in all major beef-producing countries, following a major British BSE scare in the 1980s and 90s, when BSE was linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which is known to have killed more than 220 people to date. The UK epidemic saw more than 180,000 cattle infected by the disease, and millions of animals culled to prevent its spread.
Of the BSE case in Brazil in 2012, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) issued a statement last year, saying: “BSE is a disease for which the OIE established official recognition of the sanitary status in countries and zones. The OIE has defined a transparent, science-based and impartial procedure for the recognition of BSE risk status of Member Countries. Brazil is recognised as having a negligible BSE risk i.e. the most favourable category.
“As the OIE procedure is based on an overall assessment of risk, the occurrence of a BSE case does not automatically lead to a suspension of the BSE risk status, except in the event of a change in the epidemiological situation indicating failure of the BSE risk mitigating measures in place. So far there is no reason for suspending Brazil’s BSE risk status,” the OIE statement added.
