Danilo Macedo Reporter Agência Brasil
Brasília – Brazil’s minister of Agriculture, Mendes Ribeiro Filho, has confirmed that the US Department of Agriculture has agreed to certify that slaughterhouses and meatpacking industries in the state of Santa Catarina comply with American sanitary standards. This was possible after the USDA recognized Brazilian inspectors as capable of approving pork for export. However, the US has called for more federal meat inspectors (“Serviço de Inspeção Federal – SIF”) in the pork industry.
The USDA decision means that raw pork (in natura), along with cooked and canned pork, can all be exported as long as they go through federal inspection.
Santa Catarina is the only Brazilian state that is officially free of foot and mouth disease (the ministry says it has been so since 2001). Next week a list of approved slaughterhouses and meatpackers in the state will be published.
As the US exports as well as imports pork, it is not expected to be a big market for Brazilian exporters. However, the US seal of approval will make it easier for Brazil to export pork to the really big importers: Japan and Korea.
“The opening of the US market is good news. Now the next step will be Japan and Korea,” declared the minister. “The Russian embargo made things difficult for us. With a US stamp of approval we move on to a new stage.”
Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English