NFU Turns Up The Heat, But Is Brazilian Beef Cooked?

UK - The President of the NFU, Peter Kendall, has called on the EU Commission to urgently consider banning imports of beef from Brazil, in the light of further reports of serious breaches in cattle identification regulations in a country where it is alledged foot and mouth disease is endemic.

28 November 2007

4 minute read

Europe

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

The story of the Brazilian beef scandal seems to have reached boiling point this week. The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) released yet another controversial report on Monday, which has been met with hostility from a Brazilian envoy.

Now Mr Kendall brought it into the European limelight once more.

Speaking at the Herefordshire NFU annual meeting in Hereford Mr Kendall said: “Livestock farmers across Britain have just endured four months of misery as we have complied with the strictest animal movement and biosecurity regime imaginable, at a cost of tens of millions of pounds, in order to satisfy the EU veterinary authorities that our beef, lamb and pork can safely be allowed back into international trade.

“Had our precautions, and in particular our arrangements for tracking and verifying the movement of livestock, been found wanting in the slightest particular, it would have set back the timetable for the lifting of trade restrictions by months.

He added that a "very different set of rules" applied to Brazilian competitors.

"In previous inspections, the EU’s Food and Veterinary Organisation (FVO) has found serious shortcomings in the arrangements in the Brazilian cattle traceability and other record-keeping arrangements."

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"We understand a very different set of rules applies to our main competitors, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in Brazil."

President of the NFU, Peter Kendall.

This is not the first time the NFU has raised the issue with the EU Commission regarding Brazilian beef imports. NFU lobbying has previously succeeded in the tightening of EU rules and checks made. It has also worked with retailers to change sourcing policy for imported beef.

NFU have announced that they are concerned that the most recent FVO inspection has identified breaches of animal ID requirements so serious that, according to unconfirmed but entirely plausible reports, the Brazilians have offered to restrict exports themselves in the hope of pre-empting more drastic action by the EU.

Last year, an investigation by the Irish Farmers Associations (IFA) claimed to have found evidence of deliberate malpractice, suggesting that cattle from regions of Brazil where foot and mouth disease is endemic and from which exports are supposed to be banned, were being illegally re-tagged in order to disguise their identity and origin.

Since then the IFA have also made repeated calls for a European ban of Brazilian beef, which have fallen on deaf ears. Last month, members of the IFA took the controversial step of staging an overnight sit-in at the offices of the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs in Dublin, alleging Commissioner Markos Kyprianou suppressed a critical EU veterinary report on the livestock disease and food safety controls in Brazil.

The constant allegations of the IFA were recently met with Brazilian hostility. According to The Independent newspaper, the Brazilian Ambassador to Ireland has accused the IFA of spearheading a hate-campaign against the country's meat industry. The envoy is reported to have said, "This was a kind of conspiracy, not just against us, but against the Irish consumer and the European consumers, because their idea is to eliminate one big player in the European meat market."

In a TV interview this week, Ambassador Amarante is reported to have hit back by defending his meat, saying the meat that is exported to Europe is de-boned and aged for one week at very low temperatures, killing all germs and viruses. He added that the meat was "Absolutely clean and safe."

"For export, we only have traced cattle. We have about 10 million cattle that are perfectly traced and could be used for export to the EU," he said.

However, the British NFU has now hit back strongly.

“This is not an acceptable situation." Peter Kendall said. "The same strict standards should be applied to the traceability of meat imported into the EU as apply to meat produced in the EU, in the interests of consumer protection, disease prevention and fair trade.

“We shall be calling on the EU Commission to act on the findings of the latest FVO inspection without delay and impose an immediate ban on imports from Brazilian beef until the Brazilian authorities have satisfied EU officials that they are fully compliant with the rules.

“That is what has been expected of livestock producers in this country as the price for our meat being allowed back into international trade, and I can see no reason at all why a similar level of compliance should not be expected of our competitors.”