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Brazil embassy urges Jamaica to lift ban on corned beef

Donovan Stanberry, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries,

 

The Brazilian embassy in Jamaica is urging the Government to reconsider the ban on corned beef imports from the South American country. 
 
The Jamaican authority on Monday issued an immediate ban on corned beef  products coming out of Brazil, due to wide scale investigations into the sale of  rotten beef and poultry by Brazilian meat processors. 
 
In a statement on Thursday, the Brazilian embassy said the 21 meat processing companies under investigation do not have export arrangements with Jamaica. 
 
The embassy said the companies that export to Jamaica operate within all licensing and health regulations. 
 
It stated that the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture has a rigorous inspection service for animal products with permanent auditing, monitoring and risk assessment. 
 
The embassy said it is in contact with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries for any clarification needed on the matter.
                                 
Ban still in place

Meanwhile, Donovan Stanberry, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, said the ban remains in place until the Jamaican authorities have completed their investigations.

"Our team is going to go down to Brazil some time next week...so when we would have gone there, we would be in a position to verify and satisfy ourselves that the (direct) sources from which our corned beef comes are wholesome, so that we can advise the country accordingly," he asserted.

Earlier, the Industry and Commerce Ministry had said it was satisfied with the response from retailers in withdrawing Brazilian corned beef from the shelves since Monday's recall.
  
It said the major distributors of the product have been cooperating.
  
However, Mr. Stanbury, said there will be challenges in monitoring the general retail trade.

"Of course it is easier to monitor the situation in the larger establishments and get compliance. The greater challenge is monitoring the compliance in some of the smaller establishments in the market and so on because we would not have enough human resources to go to every single establishment (so) we are depending on people complying voluntarily, taking responsibility of their health in terms of consumers not buying and people understanding that this is a precautionary measure," he declared.  

Brazil tracing shipments

In the meantime, Brazil is tracing around 5,000 shipping containers that contain meat products, to determine if the supplies have come from any factories under investigation.
 
Brazilian authorities are investigating 21 meat processing plants amid allegations of malpractice by staff in relation to meat quality.  
 
Blairo Maggi, Brazil's Minister of Agriculture, told an international news conference that containers with meat from the plants under investigation will be returned.
 
The minister also said that only six companies are authorised to ship beef abroad, and he is confident the authorities can trace all the meat that has been shipped.



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