Starting this week, Brazil can export beef to Mexico. The country authorized 34 refrigerating plants to sell to the Mexican market, after 12 years of negotiations.
Mexico will be able to buy beef from Santa Catarina, a state recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OMSA) as a foot-and-mouth disease-free zone. The country will also be able to buy fresh and boneless meat from another 14 states declared free of foot-and-mouth disease, with vaccination.
On Monday (6) night, the Mexican government published the zoosanitary requirements for the purchase of beef from Brazil, the last step towards the release of the 34 slaughterhouses. The authorization takes place one month after Mexico releases the import of Brazilian pork.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the opening of the Mexican market represents a historic opportunity for Brazilian trade relations. The expansion of markets, informed the folder, propitiates the resumption of the growth of livestock, which suffered a blow last month, with the discovery of an atypical case of mad cow disease on a farm in Marabá (PA).
In 2011, Brazil had asked Mexico for authorization to export poultry, cattle and pork to the country. Since the beginning of the year, highlighted the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, refrigerating plants were qualified for export to Indonesia and the suspensions of three more refrigerating plants for sale to the Chinese were lifted.
Crazy Cow
According to the National Service of Health, Safety and Food Quality of Mexico, the Brazilian government communicated that the case of mad cow is atypical and without risk of transmission to other animals and humans. According to the agency, as Brazil maintains the status of insignificant risk for mad cow disease, meat sales to Mexico can be cleared without problems.
Regarding the other countries that suspended the purchase of Brazilian beef after the discovery of mad cow disease, technical teams from the Ministry of Agriculture have a new meeting this Tuesday with Chinese authorities. Since the notification of the atypical case in southeastern Pará, four countries stopped buying the Brazilian product: China, Iran, Jordan and Thailand.
