This follows the publication of a report by the European Commission’s Directorate-General (DG) for Health and Food Safety on Brazilian quality-control systems for beef exported to the EU. The report found that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply in Brazil is ‘not in a position to reliably attest’ to operator compliance with the non-use of hormones in beef from cattle destined for the EU market, with the controls described as ineffective.
The IFA president said: “It really is unbelievable against the backdrop of such serious findings of the food-safety audit carried out in Brazil, which identified critical inadequacies in the systems to certify beef to meet the EU health certification requirements that the EU are attempting to ramp up negotiations to conclude the Mercosur trade deal.
“It is bad enough that the EU is willing to do a trade deal with a country that has much lower environmental, animal health, welfare and traceability standards but now we find out that the EU itself can’t even trust the arrangement’s they have in place to certify beef as hormone free to comply with existing EU health certification requirements,” he said.
Further negotiations between the EU and the Mercosur countries are due to take place in November but these should be halted and all imports from Brazil stopped until the Brazilian authorities can prove they meet the world-class standards met by Irish and EU suckler and beef farmers, said the president.