Food & Water Watch denounced the decision, saying “Brazil and Argentina have checkered food safety records, as USDA has been forced on several occasions to suspend imports of products presently eligible to come into the USA for various food safety violations and for failure to meet our inspection standards”.
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“We have recovered a good market”, Agriculture Minister Carlos Casamiquela said during a televised press conference.
APHIS said its risk assessments indicate that fresh (chilled or frozen) beef can be safely imported, provided certain conditions are met to ensure beef exported to the US won’t harbor the FMD virus. Those areas have a history of foot and mouth disease.
Argentina eradicated the disease in 1997 but it resurfaced in 2000, after cows were reportedly smuggled into the country from Paraguay.
The firm said it was well-placed to benefit from the opening of the United States and Chinese markets through its Keystone operations, as well as its existing experience in its Uruguay operation, which already exports beef to these two countries.
The World Organization for Animal Health declared Argentina free of the disease in 2007 but the US kept its market closed.
Argentine beef prices are estimated to be 35 percent less than in the US, Infobae news site reported, citing unidentified sources in the industry. South Dakota Stock Grower’s Association President Bob Fortune says his group is disappointed with the rules which are set to go into effect September 1st.
The U.S. market has opened to fresh beef imports from Brazil and Argentina, ending a long period of restriction, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service revealed yesterday (29 June).
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Brazil’s total beef exports were 1.56 million tonnes worth $7.2 billion.
