China, the main buyer of Brazilian beef, lifted the embargo on the product that it imposed in September on Wednesday after two cases of ‘mad cow disease’ were detected, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Chinese authorities reported.
“The certification and shipment of animal protein to China will be standardized and can be resumed as of today,” the Brazilian ministry said in a statement, notified this Wednesday by the authorities of the Asian giant.
“The import of boneless meat products (of animals) under 30 months of age from Brazil to China is resumed,” detailed the Chinese General Administration of Customs on its website.
The suspension of shipments to China, in force since September 4, had slaughterhouses and producers in Brazil, the main exporter of beef in the world, in suspense.
In 2020, shipments to China totaled US $ 4.04 billion, 48% of Brazilian meat exports, according to official data.
The Secretary of Commerce and International Relations of the Ministry of Agriculture, Orlando Leite Ribeiro, estimated a “minimal impact” on the annual result of the Chinese measure. “If there is a difference (compared to 2020), it will not be more than 2%,” he said in statements to the press.
Even with the embargo, meat exports to the Asian country reached US $ 3.87 billion so far this year, 46% of total sales, the ministry said in a separate note.
China has kept Brazilian meat revenues suspended since the South American country identified two atypical cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the states of Mato Grosso (center-west) and Minas Gerais (southeast).
But the embargo was released after the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) assessed that there is an “insignificant risk” in relation to the disease identified in Brazil, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
China had already released some shipments in November that had pre-embargo certificates.
Brazilian meat exports in 2020 reached 2.2 million tons, or 14.4% of the international market, ahead of Australia and the United States, according to data from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa), of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Brazil has 217 million bovine heads, 14.3% of the world’s cattle.
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