Traders may now import beef, poultry and mechanically deboned meat from Brazil, as the Philippine government has lifted the four-month ban it imposed on meat products from the Latin American country.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) issued last Friday a memorandum order (MO) authorizing the lifting of the import ban after it concluded that Brazilian meat exporters were compliant with Philippine food-safety standards. The MO was signed by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol.
“There has been a DA Inspection Mission [DAIM] to verify and evaluate the animal health food-safety systems of the Federative Republic of Brazil,” Piñol said in the MO, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror.
“Based on the evaluation of the DAIM Team, the Federative Republic of Brazil [through its Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, representative farms, veterinary and quarantine services and FMEs (foreign meat establishments) inspected] were found to comply with the Philippines’s animal health and food-safety requirements,” he added.
Piñol said the MO takes effect immediately. He called on Brazilian exporters to abide by Manila’s food-safety regulations on beef, pork and poultry meat imports.
“All import transaction of the above products shall be in accordance with existing rules and regulation of the DA, Bureau of Animal Industry and National Meat Inspection Services [DA-BAI-NMIS],” the MO read.
A government source told the BusinessMirror that the DAIM inspected 23 FMEs in Brazil from September 18 to 29. Of the total number of FMEs, 10 were found to have been involved in the shipment of meat products tainted with salmonella to the Philippines in July.
Earlier, Brazilian Animal Protein Association Vice President of Market Ricardo Santin said his group expects shipments of Brazilian meat products to the Philippines to hit a record high in 2018 due to the strong demand for poultry products.
“Brazilian exporters are prepared to supply the demand of Philippine market with quality products. If all the [processes] end by November, we hope to return the exports in the same level as before,” Santin told the
BusinessMirror via e-mail.
“Actually, we expect [shipments] to increase. In 2016 we exported 37,200 metric tons. We believe sales [in 2018] would be better than last year,” he added.
In August Piñol issued MO 32, dated July 31, which authorized the temporary suspension of the accreditation of all Brazilian FMEs after the government discovered that some shipments were tainted with salmonella.
“According to Memorandum Circular 9-2008-5, Series of 2008, entitled ‘Microbiological limits for assessment of microbiological quality fresh, chilled and frozen meat,’ microbiological limits for salmonella spp. must be absent in 25 grams sample,” MO 32 read.
“A total of 246 out of 492 container vans were sampled and subjected to laboratory analysis from March 1 to June 30, wherein samples from 18 containers [7 percent] tested positive for salmonella spp.,” it added.