Copa European Farmers and Cogeca European Agri- Cooperatives have sent a letter to the EU Commission to call for stronger action against Brazilian meat imports to the EU following the recent export scandal.
Speaking in Brussels, Copa and Cogeca secretary-general, Pekka Pesonen, said: “It is not acceptable to have these kind of fraud cases emerging where export certificates have been falsified for ten years or more and veterinary requirements not complied with.
“This is not the first time that the Brazilian authorities are facing fraud. Unfortunately, we have not seen sufficient corrective measures put in place. Effective action must be taken to prevent it from happening again.”
According to Pesonen, Copa and Cogeca strongly support the European Commission’s decision to reject the European veterinary certificate for meat imports from the Brazilian meat sites in question in the scandal.
“We need to recognise that the missions carried out by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) and the controls undertaken at EU borders have been unable to detect the weaknesses in the Brazilian food safety system which have apparently being going on for more than ten years” Pesonen added.
Copa and Cogeca will call on the Commission to monitor the next steps that will be taken by the Brazilian authorities to make sure that no other production sites have the same issue and to address such fraud in the future.
The Commission must ensure that imports to the EU meet the high EU standards. European farmers and their cooperatives cannot afford to lower EU food safety standards or put EU consumer confidence at risk due to fraud in non-EU countries.
It is also committed to EU production standards which in the case of beef provide full individual traceability of cattle throughout the animal’s lifetime.
“Copa and Cogeca refuse to allow double standards in food safety for meat to be applied vis a vis imports on the EU single market,” Pesonen insisted.
“Brazil’s failure to apply and monitor EU-equivalent food safety standards for meat also raises serious concerns about the ongoing trade talks between the EU and Latin American trade bloc Mercosur.
“In beef, we reiterate our calls to implement the full individual traceability scheme for cattle throughout its lifetime. We believe that this scheme is a prerequisite for the next stages of the Mercosur trade negotiations.”
European farmers have made an effort over the years to improve the traceability along the chain, from day one of an animal’s life right through to the slaughterhouse, in order to meet consumer demands and maintain consumer confidence.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
