São Paulo – Lebanon will resume imports of beef and cattle from the state of Paraná after almost four years of interruption. The restart of imports was announced this Wednesday (31) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa) through a statement. According to the ministry, it expects Lebanon to start purchasing again in the next few weeks.
According to information provided by Mapa, the end of the embargo was signed on Monday (22) by the head of Lebanon’s Direction of Animal Resources, AkramChehayeb, and was based on data from the World Organisation for Animal Health(OIE, in the French acronym).
Just as many countries did, Lebanon stopped buying beef from the Paraná state herd after the Brazilian government announced, in November 2012, the death of an animal of that herd that was carrying the agent for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), known as the “mad cow disease”. The animal died in 2010 without developing the disease.
After the announcement, buyers of beef, cattle and its products interrupted imports from the state and, in some cases, from Brazil itself. Gradually, the embargos were lifted, however, Lebanon only now will resume purchases of products coming from Paraná.
According to a statement released by Mapa, data from 2014 shows that Lebanon imported USD 343 million worth of cattle that year. From this total, USD 128 million were imported from Brazil. In turn, shipments of fresh beef totaled USD14.2 million last year. At the end of last year, Saudi Arabia lifted the embargo to Brazilian imports. In March of this year, Qatar also lifted its embargo.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
