Following three months of negotiations and market research, the Transit and Animal Quarantine Coordination Office for the Brazilian government received confirmation of the deal this week.
The Brazilian Embassy in Rabat reported that the Office of Sanitary Security of Food Products – based in Morocco – approved the International Animals Health certificates for turkey genetic materials to be exported from Brazil.
The fertile turkey eggs and chicks will be used by Moroccans to supply turkey meat production chains.
Morocco will be among 50 other countries, including the Middle East, Africa and Asia, regularly importing poultry genetic material from Brazil.
The coordinator of Transit and Animal Quarantine for Brazil, Judi Da Nóbrega, said the country’s poultry genetics import markets were booming.
“The main factors contributing to successive external market achievements are in the international recognition of the health status of Brazilian poultry plants, the biosafety level of Brazilian genetically engineered establishments and the efficiency of poultry lines produced in Brazil,” said Da Nóbrega.
Imported Brazilian chicken was described as a ‘serious health risk’ by South Africa’s antidumping PR machine at the start of 2018. However, Da Nóbrega added that the access and maintenance of import markets for these goods were strategic for the country and noted that Brazil remained the only country not to have contracted avian influenza among its poultry.
According to the Brazilian Association of Animal Proteins, 9,390 tonnes (t) of fertile eggs and 754t of chicks were exported each day during 2016. Foreign exchange revenue from the sales was US$87,200 per tonne, while chicken meat was US$1,560 per tonne.