São Paulo – Today (29th), diplomats from approximately 230 countries, among them ambassadors and representatives from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Sudan and Lebanon, visited the city of Uberaba, in the state of Minas Gerais, to get to know and understand the potential of milk and beef cattle breeding resulting from genetic improvement of the Zebu race, which contributes to the evolution of the meat and milk produced in Brazil.
The visit was coordinated by the Agribusiness Foreign Relations Secretariat and the Brazilian Cattle consortium, established by the Brazilian Association of Zebu Cattle Breeders (ABCZ), in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex). “Our objective is to introduce our genetic improvement work to countries with tropical and semi-tropical climate that might import semen and embryos from Brazil,” said the special advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, Newton Ribas.
According to him, work with the Zebu race has been underway in Brazil for 60 years, and now the country is prepared to export. “Going back 30 years, the country was an importer of genetic material from Europe and the United States. Now we are exporters,” said the advisor. Countries that import from Brazil include Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, Argentina, Egypt, Senegal and Thailand.
During the day, the diplomats visited the headquarters of the Brazilian Zebu Cattle Breeders Association (ABCZ) to become acquainted with the dairy and girolando Zebu races. They watched lectures on dairy cattle breeding, its potentialities and the characteristics of each race. After luncheon, the group visited a semen production centre of the Alta Genetics company. At the centre, aside from production, the diplomats got to know the sanitary aspects involved in the semen exporting process.
The Terras de Kubera farm, regarded as a reference in breeding of the Girolando and Gir races, was also visited by the group. According to the chairman of the Brazilian Artificial Insemination Association (Asbia), Lino Rodrigues Filho, Brazil has attained maturity and meets the sanitary requirements demanded in order to export. According to the chairman, the country produces 5 million doses of semen per year and exports 300,000. On the other hand, it imports 4 million.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
