EU Report Finds Brazilian Beef Imports Cannot be Guaranteed to be From Hormone-Free Animals

IFA President Francie Gorman said the EU must immediately stop imports of beef from Brazil and cease negotiations with the Mercosur countries on a trade deal involving meat.

This follows the publication of a damning report by the European Commission’s Directorate-General (DG) for Health and Safety on Brazilian quality control systems for beef exported to the EU.

The report found that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply in Brazil is ‘not in a position to reliably attest’ to operator compliance with the non-use of hormones in beef from cattle destined for the EU market, with the controls described as ineffective.

The IFA President said that he would raising the report with An Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister Charlie McConalogue at the IFA Farming and Food Conference in the Curragh Racecourse today. 

“It really is unbelievable against the backdrop of such serious findings of the Food Safety audit carried out in Brazil, which identified critical in adequacies in the systems to certify beef to meet the EU health certification requirements that the EU are attempting to ramp up negotiations to conclude the Mercosur trade deal.

It is bad enough that the EU is willing to do a trade deal with a country that has much lower environmental, animal health, welfare and traceability standards but now we find out that the EU itself can’t even trust the arrangement’s they have in place to certify beef as hormone free to comply with existing EU Health certification requirements,” he said.

“Further negotiations between the EU and the Mercosur countries are due to take place on November. Any discussions on beef should be halted and all imports from Brazil should be stopped until the Brazilian authorities can prove they meet the world-class standards met by Irish and EU suckler and beef farmers,” he concluded.