The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa) received, this Wednesday (15/12), information about the release of beef exports to China. With this, the certification and shipment of animal protein to China will be normalized and can be resumed from today.
“We have resumed the normal flow of exports to China. We had a very technical negotiation with a series of information exchanges and meetings with the Chinese health authority team. We had already completed sending the latest information through our channel via the embassy in Beijing about a month ago, so we already expected that there would be a solution to this solution. In this way, the Asian country will again accept batches of certified Brazilian meat from this Wednesday. It is good news for the sector, as it is the main import destination for Brazilian beef”, explained the Agricultural Defense Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, José Guilherme Leal.
Shipments to the Asian country had been suspended since September 4, when Brazil identified and reported two atypical cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), registered in Nova Canaã do Norte (MT) and Belo Horizonte (MG).
The suspension was made by Brazil in compliance with the protocol signed between the two countries, which determines this course of action in the case of BSE, even if in an atypical way. This means that these animals developed the disease spontaneously and sporadically, not being related to the ingestion of contaminated food and that there is no transmission of the disease between animals.
The OIE, which is the international organization that monitors animal health, analyzed the information provided as a result of the two cases of atypical BSE and reaffirmed Brazil's status as an “insignificant risk” for the disease.
According to the Secretary of Commerce and International Relations, Orlando Leite Ribeiro, Brazil provided all the information requested by the Chinese authorities. “They were satisfied with the level of information provided by Mapa. Our team here had contact with Chinese authorities almost daily. When the technical information satisfied the Chinese authorities, they reopened the market,” he explained.
In November, China had already released some batches of Brazilian beef that received national health certification by September 3, 2021.
The Brazilian government received with satisfaction the news that the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) completed the evaluation of the two cases of atypical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) that occurred in Brazil in September this year and authorized, as of today, the resumption of Brazilian beef exports to that market.
The positive result achieved now is the result of close coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) and the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both in Brasília and Beijing. It is also a result of the fluid dialogue that has been maintained with the Chinese authorities since the beginning. MAPA immediately provided GACC with all pertinent information regarding suspected two cases of BSE, even before they were confirmed by the international reference laboratory of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), in Alberta, Canada.
As soon as the two occurrences, which were found to be atypical, were confirmed, the World Organization for Animal Health was formally notified on September 3. After analyzing the relevant elements and confirming the atypicality, that Organization closed the case on the same day, without changing Brazil's health status, which remains an insignificant risk for BSE.
Even so, exports were temporarily suspended, in strict compliance with current bilateral protocol.
The decision by the Chinese authorities confirms the excellence of official Brazilian health controls.
China is the main destination for meat exported by Brazil. In 2020, Brazil exported US$4,04 billion of beef to that country, 48% of our total global sales. Even with the suspension since September, Brazilian beef exports to China have already totaled US$2021 billion in 3,87, 46% of global sales of the product.
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