The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Tuesday said it will inspect some 25 meat establishments in Brazil next month, following the temporary ban it imposed earlier on meat imports from the Latin American country.
The DA on July 20 declared that it would suspend the importation of Brazilian meat products after salmonella was detected in some of the shipments.
Agriculture Assistant Secretary for Livestock Enrico P. Garzon Jr. said 10 DA personnel will be sent to Brazil to conduct the inspection.
“We are now preparing the documents needed. What we are seeing now is that the inspection could happen in the second week of August because of the number of documents required,” Garzon told reporters in a news briefing.
“It would take about two weeks for the results of the inspection to come out,” he added.
Garzon said the DA will lift the export ban on meat-packing plants that will be cleared by the inspectors.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the ban was imposed to ensure the safety of Filipino consumers. He added that his directive would pave the way for government’s inspection of Brazilian meat-packing plants.
Meat Importers and Traders Association President Jesus C. Cham urged the government to expedite its investigation, as any delays in the process could result in higher meat prices.
“To minimize the impact, we urge [the] DA to inspect the plants expeditiously, at the same time adhering to the standards of the international Codex Alimentarius Commission,
of which the Philippines is a member,” Cham told the BusinessMirror in an earlier interview.
In a communication to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Brazil assured fellow member-countries that it is taking steps to correct the anomalies revealed in the March rotten-meat scandal. Brazil said it has updated its Sanitary Inspection Regulation “to fight economic fraud and improve food safety”.
“The new regulation establishes severe penalties for irregularities ranging from heavy fines to losing of the federal inspection approval seal, in case of persisted noncompliances,” Brazil said during a recent meeting of the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee this month.
Brazil, through its Ministry of Agriculture, also established the “compliance program”, which aims to enhance the mechanism in preventing and correcting business
misconduct.
During the meeting, Brazil also said the irregularities found in the involved companies were related to economic fraud and did not compromise the safety of its meat products.
Based on the list of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS), as of September 2016, a total of 56 accredited Brazilian meat establishments are allowed to export meat and meat products to the Philippines.
However, the NMIS noted that that the accreditation of all 56 meat establishments in Brazil is “for revalidation”. Some of the accredited Brazil-based meat establishments include JBS S.A. and BRF S.A., which are involved in the rotten-meat scandal.
Data obtained from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) showed that the Philippines imported 20,716.616 metric tons (MT) of meat and meat products from Brazil in January to May. Beef imports accounted for 31.62 percent, or 6,551.453 MT, BAI data showed.
Chicken imports accounted for more than half of the meat and meat products purchased from Brazil, or about 62.64 percent. The Philippines imported 12,977.167 MT of chicken meat and products from Brazil during the five-month period.
In 2016 Brazil exported a total of 55,581.853 MT of meat and meat products to the Philippines. This was 5.86 percent higher than the 52,505.429 MT recorded in 2015.
Image credits: AP/Eraldo Peres
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