Ifa Press Statement

IFA PRESS STATEMENT

IFA BRAZILIAN MISSION PRODUCES EVIDENCE FOR TOTAL EU BAN
An IFA/Farmers Journal investigative mission to Brazil has produced
extensive factual evidence which proves the total lack of effective
controls and standards in the Brazilian beef sector.
IFA National Livestock Chairman John Bryan said “based on the evidence we
found of non existent cattle traceability, widespread illegal removal and
cutting out of tags, totally inadequate movement and FMD controls and the
use of hormone growth promoters, the only conclusion for the EU Commission
is to immediately impose a total ban on all Brazilian beef imports into
Europe.”
John Bryan accused the EU Commission, particularly Trade Commissioner
Peter Mandelson and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, of
pursuing a politically-motivated trade agenda on Brazilian beef imports
which was placing the European consumer and livestock sector at an
unacceptable and unnecessary risk that is not tolerated by the United
States and a number of other countries. The IFA Livestock leader said “the
shocking practices we witnessed in Brazil make a total farce of EU
controls and standards, and there is no way either the EU Commission or
European supermarkets can any longer pretend Brazilian beef imports come
anywhere near satisfying EU standards and consumer expectations.”
John Bryan said to retain any credibility in the EU system of import
controls the Commission must immediately ban Brazilian beef imports. The
IFA livestock leader said that there are severe social and environmental
consequences associated with Brazilian beef exports into Europe related to
worker exploitation and slave labour issues and the continuing destruction
of the rainforests in the Pantanal and Amazon regions. On the crucial
issue of traceability and tagging, John Bryan said there is no effective
traceability system in Brazil. He said there is no cattle tagging
whatsoever on the majority of farms. “On the few farms where there were
tags, we found routine and widespread removal and cutting out of the
official SISBOV tags in order to facilitate illegal movement,” he added.
John Bryan said he saw cattle destined for export with split ears and
holes in the ears from the removal of original tags in order to change
their identity and make them acceptable at export plants. The IFA
Livestock leader said it is clear from our visit that the movement of
cattle from FMD restricted states into unrestricted ‘clear’ states is
widespread. He said “this explains why actual imports into the EU have
fallen by only 2%, despite restrictions on states which accounted for over
60% of EU imports before the FMD crisis in 2005. We saw evidence of large
scale cattle movement across state borders driven by higher prices in the
unrestricted states.” John Bryan said this makes a sham of the EU FMD
regionalisation policy in dividing Brazil into restricted and unrestricted
states. The IFA Livestock leader said Professor Augusto Pinto, a Brazilian
FMD expert, told the IFA further outbreaks of FMD are imminent in Brazil.
He added there is a real risk of an FMD outbreak going undetected and of
being covered up when detected. Professor Pinto said “the government adopt
a “don’t want to know policy” on the control of FMD. They have made a new
Minister for Agriculture who has no interest in FMD and has ignored best
scientific practice. There is still no programme to control BSE.” John
Bryan said as bad as the Brazilian efforts are to combat FMD, the
situation is much worse in Paraguay & Bolivia which border the states of
Matto Grosso, Matto Grosso do Sol & Panama.
He said with cattle prices significantly higher in Brazil, cattle
smuggling from these high-risk FMD countries is reported to be widespread.
John Bryan said on one of the farms visited, we found evidence of the use
of growth promoting hormones banned in Europe. We also found widespread
use of other drugs that are banned in the EU. Antibiotics and insecticides
to kill parasites are widely used and readily available over the counter
in farm stores in all rural towns. Records of animal medicines are not
kept anywhere and withdrawal periods are routinely ignored. In conclusion
John Bryan said Irish & European farmers operated to the highest
international standards of food safety, animal identification and
traceability and strict controls on animal medicines and residue testing.
European consumers expect that all beef on sale in the EU meet these
standards. Producers and consumers rely on the Commission to uphold
European standards across the board. By accepting Brazilian beef imports,
which clearly fall below European standards, the EU Commission are failing
in their duty to European consumers and undermining European producers.