Agriculture Online
August 16, 2006
SAO PAULO (Dow Jones)--In coming weeks, Brazil is likely to issue export
licenses to three more meatpackers to ship processed Brazilian beef to the U.S. - a step which could boost Brazilian beef sales to the country as much as 15% to 20%, according to a press report in local Agencia Estado wire on Wednesday.
Currently 20 plants have authorization to sell meat to the U.S., said Nelmon
Oliveira da Costa, the director of the animal products inspection department at
Brazil's Agricultural Ministry, according to the report.
However, three more plants could be granted export licenses, pending the approval of a U.S. team of agricultural inspectors that arrived in Brazil on Wednesday to evaluate sanitary conditions at several of the country's meatpacking plants. They will be in the country until Sept. 12.
In other news, however, the Agricultural Ministry on Friday temporarily
suspended the export license of a Sao Paulo plant of the country's No. 2 beef
exporter Bertin last Friday due to a complaint from the U.S. about the
specifications of one shipment, according to local Valor Economico newspaper.
The plant, which is located in the municipality of Lins in the interior of
Sao Paulo state, will be visited by the U.S. team on Monday and Tuesday. If it
passes inspection, the plant could return to exporting beef within 90 days.
If the plant is excluded from the approved U.S. list of beef exporters,
however, it may not be allowed to ship meat for a full year.
However, Agricultural Ministry officials have said that the problem occurred during the shipment of the cargo, as opposed to at the factory.
"It wasn't a loss of control of the factory process, but just a problem of
logistics," said Nelmon Oliveira, according to the Valor report.
Sanitary conditions at Brazilian meatpacking plants have been a trade issue
between Brazil and the U.S. in recent months. Last year, the U.S. inspection
team banned meat from plants of some of the country's major meatpackers,
including a Sao Paulo plant owned by Friboi, a plant in Rio Grande do Sul owned
by Pampeano, and a plant in Minas Gerais state owned by Kerry.
After that, the suspension was extended to 28 Brazilian meatpackers, as the
U.S. asked Brazil to revise its technical procedures as well as control systems
for meat-processing.
In 2005, the U.S. bought roughly $205.7 million of processed beef from Brazil. In the first seven months of this year, the U.S. has purchased $167.5 million of the product.
Brazil is the world's leading beef exporter.
-By Grace Fan; Dow Jones
Newswires
Brazils Government of traceability records,Sisbov of Brazil, demands more organization of the agricultural cattle producers.
The Commission of Cattle of Cut of the Famato analyzes in meeting, in this tuesday (01/08), to 14h, the consequences for the sector of the Service of Rastreabilidade of the Productive Chain of Bovinos and Bubalinos (Sisbov). With important and sufficiently reasonable changes for the agricultural producers, this is the new denomination of the old Brazilian System of Identification and Certification of Origin Bovina and Bubalina (Sisbov). The alterations had been published in the Normative Instruction of number 17 (IN 17), in 14 of July, for the Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle and Supplying (Map). The new system invigorates from day 13 of September of this year.
One of the measures most excellent, in the opinion of the consultant of cattle of the Famato, Luiz Carlos Meister, is that the adhesion left of being obligator, now it is voluntary, but, who to opt to the cadastre in the system will have that to track 100% of the flock, either exported it or not. “All the chain will be tracked by this new process and, of this form, the security of the animal, or of the product of these animals, since the grass until the plate of the consumer, it will be guaranteed”, it considers Meister. “Therefore, to I oppose it of normative the previous one, the convivência of tracked and tracked more it will not be allowed. However, we go to track the animals for those markets that demand the rastreabilidade”, we only explain the consultant of the Famato. That is, the 25 countries of the Economic Community Européia and Chile. In this in case that, also the creation calls the attention in in17 the concept of “Agricultural Establishment Approved Sisbov”, that it guarantees the rastreabilidade of the exporting property of meat.
In accordance with the new rules, all the animals of the approved establishments must obligatorily be tracked and be identified individually. The births of an Agricultural Establishment Approved Sisbov will have to be identified individually soon after wean it, in the maximum stated period of ten months and before the first movement. How much to the identification, the producer will be able to opt to the identification with a simple earring or to opt to the marking the fire, electronic tattooing or chip, since that folloied of auricular earring or botton in the standards of the Sisbov. IN 17 establishes despite from January of 2009 the movement of the tracked animals will be restricted the approved establishments.
The National Base of Dados (BND) of the bovines and tracked bubalinos continues under responsibility of the Sisbov, being fed by the credential certifiers for the exporting Map, cold storage rooms and on agencies to the Unified System of Attention to the Cattle Health. The producer is obliged to communicate to the sanitary agencies and the certifiers, in in the maximum 30 days, any movement of the tracked flock. The certifiers will have 72 hours to report to the Sisbov.
The “approved Property Sisbov” is under guardianship of an only certifier, who will supervise it to each 180 days. The confinements will be inspected to each 60 days. With the new Sisbov, the Service of Inspeção Federal (SIF) continues with the power to declassify the rastreabilidade of the animals at the moment of abates it. This will occur when it will have discrepancy enters the contained information in the Guide of Animal Transit and the BND. These information include name of the property and the proprietor, sex, age and race, time of permanence in the BND and the last property where it was. The effective declassification will cause to the producing damage of R$ 3,00/arroba, on average, for animal tracked.
MANAGEMENT OF the PROPERTY - Ones of the requirements of the new system is that the farm will have that to present to the certifier a management plan. As consequence, the creator will be able to use this tool to follow the production, to identify to imperfections and damages.
Perhaps for the consultant of the Famato, this is the biggest challenge for the pecuaristas because she is necessary to evaluate very the investment to be made well in the total tracking of the flock, including the ones that are played and not exported. “The cost for arroba of a tracked animal is of R$ 2,00. As nor everything that is tracked it goes for exportation - as the cow - the cost fold, therefore, the producers will have that to organize itself to value the investment still more”, it evidences Luiz Carlos Meister.
The pecuarista will have that to keep a book of register with the control of all the sanitary and look-sanitary procedures adopted and the insumos used in the production. “The new system demands organization and qualification. Rastreabilidade without control does not become. However, the organized pecuaristas more will have that to be cortejados by the cold storage rooms”, it points the consultant. The expectation of the sector in relation to the changes in the system is positive. “The consumer wants security and the producer has that to offer this”, I concluded the consultant of the Famato.
The pecuaristas have up to 31 of December of 2007 to adjust themselves to the rules of the Sisbov, when the current norms and the changes of IN 17 leave to coexist.