São Paulo – Brazil is set to resume selling beef to Saudi Arabia this month. Following a three-year-long ban, the Arab country announced the resumption of imports, but the process takes a few months, because manufacturing plants must be accredited anew. According to estimates released this Monday by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, the product should be shipped this February, i.e. three months after the ban lift.
The ministry said nine facilities are accredited to export raw and processed beef in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, six in Mato Grosso, five in Minas Gerais, two in Rio Grande do Sul, two in Rondônia, two in Paraná, 10 in São Paulo, eight in Goiás, three in Pará and one in Tocantins.
Once a ban is lifted, the exporting country is required to submit papers to the importing country and reaccredit its plants to sell. Other Gulf countries that mirror the Saudi position are also likely to start buying from Brazil again.
The Ministry told ANBA that enterprises looking to export again must go on the website of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) to “reconfirm their data.” The Ministry quotes Saudi officials as saying the procedure takes two hours at most. After that, the company is allowed to export.
The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture expects beef exports to Saudi Arabia to fetch USD 42 million this year alone and possibly reach USD 74 million in coming years. Last December, the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (Abiec) believed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain could import as much as 50,000 tons a year, an amount worth USD 230 million.
Saudi Arabia and several other countries ceased to import Brazilian beef and beef-based products in November 2012, following the government’s announcement that a cow that died in 2010 in the state of Paraná carried Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), aka “mad-cow disease.” The animal, however, did not develop the disease, and the case was deemed “atypical” by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Since then, most countries resumed importing, but not Saudi Arabia or some of the Gulf nations that are now poised to buy again.
In 2014, Saudi Arabia imported USD 497 million worth of beef, according to Ministry data. Of those, USD 251 million were imported from India and USD 156 million came from Australia, its two leading suppliers.
Additional information: http://old.sfda.gov.sa/en/Pages/default.aspx
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
