Egypt, China resume Brazil meat imports

By AFP - Mar 25,2017 - Last updated at Mar 25,2017

Meat products are seen in a cold storage room at a supermarket in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during an inspection by the state's consumer protection agency, PROCON, on Friday (AFP photo)

CAIRO, BRASILIA — Egypt said on Saturday it would resume importing meat from Brazil after a brief suspension following allegations that exporters in the Latin American country had sold tainted beef and poultry.

"We suspended it (this week) until we found out what happened and now it's back, but we won't import anything from slaughter houses or factories that have a problem," said Mona Mehrez, a deputy to the agriculture minister.

Brazilian meat exports were worth $63 million a day until last week's announcement by police of "Operation Weak Flesh," which revealed that some meatpackers had paid crooked inspectors to pass off rotten and adulterated meat as safe.

Brazil's government had appealed Wednesday to the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) 163 other members not to impose "arbitrary" bans on the country's more than $13 billion meat export industry.

Also on Saturday, Brazil said that major trading partner China had lifted a ban on the imports of its products.

"China announced today it has fully reopened its market to Brazilian meat," Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said in a statement.

Maggi did not say when the resumption of Brazilian meat imports, suspended on Monday by China, would take effect.

The minister said China will keep in place only its import restrictions on meat from 21 Brazilian processing plants under investigation over the tainted meat scandal.

China is the second-largest importer of Brazilian beef, after Hong Kong, with more than $703 million in imports in 2016. For both meat and poultry, China also was in second place with nearly $859.5 million in imports.

The reopening of the Chinese market "attests to the rigour and quality of the Brazilian sanitary system" and "shows the spirit of mutual confidence between our two countries," Maggi said.

The scandal emerged on March 17 when Brazilian police said they had uncovered a scheme to bribe corrupt health inspectors at those processing plants to certify tainted meat as fit for consumption.

On Monday, China suspended all Brazilian meat imports, and Hong Kong took the same step the next day.

On Friday, Hong Kong announced it will recall Brazilian meat from the 21 processing plants under investigation.

Rate