São Paulo – Representatives of Brazilian meat producers reacted this Monday (20) to operation Carne Fraca, launched by Brazil’s Federal Police last Friday. According to the presidents of the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA), Francisco Turra, and of the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABIEC), Antônio Jorge Camardelli, the sanitation standards of the sector in Brazil comply with “international standards” and possible deviations “represent a minimal fraction of Brazilian production.”
To them, isolated cases cannot “contaminate” the image of the industry as a whole. “The disclosure of the police operation bred generalizations that both the federal government and the sector’s associations are now clarifying to Brazilian consumers and the international market,” said Turra, according to a statement released jointly by the associations. “We are here, ABPA and ABIEC, together, to assure consumers in Brazil and importing countries that they can consume the meat produced in our country without health safety concerns,” added Camardelli.
In a press conference held in São Paulo, executives criticized the way in which the operation was disclosed. “The communication led to an image that everything around here is bad,” said Turra, according to Agência Brasil. “It’s very clear that 99.9% of the producers are righteous and inspect [the products]. Brazil’s biosafety is impeccable,” he underscored, adding that the sector employs over 7 million people and accounts for 15% of Brazilian exports.
Rui Vargas, a technical director of ABPA, said that there were mistakes by the Federal Police when labeling part of the investigated procedures as illegal. “Everything that was said was technically wrong,” he added.
Along the same lines, president Michel Temer said that the meat packers being investigated are only a small part within the sector – 21 plants out of 4,800 – and that the accusations involve only 33 public servants of the Ministry of Agriculture among more than 11,000.
“The agro business for us in Brazil is very important and it should not be marred by a small number of players, by something that will be minor: it can be investigated, inspected and punished, if that is the case. But you cannot compromise the whole system that we have established throughout the years. We export to over 150 countries,” said the Brazilian president in a speech at the American Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo, according to Agência Brasil. “We have very strict systems of sanitation inspection here in Brazil,” he added.
Ambassadors
On Sunday, Temer gathered in Brasília with diplomats from 33 meat-importing countries from Brazil to reassure them about the quality of the products and to tell them about the strict sanitation control, and later he invited them to dine in a steakhouse.
Temer announced the creation of a task force to accelerate the audit procedures of the slaughterhouses being investigated. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture announced the discharge of its superintendents in Paraná and Goiás and suspended the 33 public servants suspected of being involved in the case.
“When we say ‘rest assured’ it is because we know the bulk of our system, 99% of our food producers in Brazil operate in a serious and transparent way,” declared the minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, on Sunday, in Brasília.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
