São Paulo – Saudi Arabia should resume purchasing beef from Brazil soon. This Friday (12th), a delegation from the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) met with technicians from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply in Brasília and lauded the sanitation program in place for livestock in Brazil, which they witnessed during their stay in the country. The group will submit a report of their activities in Brazil to the SFDA board. This document should determine the resumption of Brazilian beef purchases by Saudi Arabia.
According to the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce Government Relations manager, Tamer Mansour, who attended the meeting in Brasília, the Saudi technicians praised the Brazilian sanitation program and noted the care taken, for instance, in tracking the animals.
“They heaped praise and said Brazil does a wonderful job (of keeping track of its herds). Now, they will deliver a report to the SFDA’s upper echelon, so that the Saudi king (Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud) issues a decree to resume exports,” said Mansour.
The process should take 15 days, after which the Gulf country will likely ban the embargo put in place in November 2012. On that occasion, the Brazilian government revealed that an animal in the state of Paraná which carried Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), aka mad cow disease, died in 2010, without developing the disease. Several countries stopped buying Brazilian beef and beef products, but eventually moved back. Saudi Arabia kept its embargo. Ever since, the Brazilian and Saudi governments had several meetings to discuss the issue.
Early this month, two teams led by SFDA Food and Imports director Saleh Al Wassel visited Brazilian beef and poultry manufacturing facilities – Saudi Arabia is the leading buyer of these products from Brazil. In the case of poultry, the Saudis intend to establish a technical cooperation framework.
As for beef, the object of the visit that ended this Friday was witnessing the Brazilian industry’s facilities and sanitation program. The SFDA team went to production units in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso, and to the National Agriculture Laboratory (Lanagro) in Recife, Pernambuco, which specializes in testing cattle for diseases.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
