Vietnam still places restrictions on imports of Brazilian beef

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has announced the suspension of imports of beef from the Brazilian meat-packers involved in the recent scandal will continue indefinitely.

The move comes after plants owned by meat companies BRF, JBS and Grupo Peccin in Brazil were targeted by police on suspicion of accepting bribes in exchange for overlooking unsanitary factory conditions and potentially contaminated meat.

Specifically, those under investigation are accused of allowing rotten or salmonella-tainted meat to be exported to overseas markets from Brazil.

The move by Vietnam comes on top of the already existing ban by Brazilian agriculture minister Blairo Maggi to suspend export activity at the 21 plants located in Brazil while the investigation continues.

Vietnam joins other countries including Japan, Switzerland, the European Union, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Peru in continuing to place restrictions on imports of Brazilian meat in reaction to the corruption probe.

The Republic of Korea, which had previously imposed restrictions on meat originating from Brazil, has since lifted its ban.

Nearly 3,000 tons of meat had been imported into Vietnam from Brazil since early this year and there have been no known incidences of contamination reported in the country, noted the Ministry.

However, the Ministry added it has stepped up testing of beef from the South American country to ensure that all imports of beef from meat packers not involved in the scandal are also safe for human consumption.

There is no long-term fallout expected to affect the country from the beef scandal as restrictions on imports of Brazilian meat does not affect most beef markets or consumers, retailers have reported.

Big C Supermarket and of Co.op Mart representatives have widely reported they primarily import beef from the US and Australia and none from Brazil.

Bui Manh Hai, director of the Lotte Dong Da Supermarket, also has emphasized that Lotte meat markets have not imported Brazilian beef but import most of their meat from Australia or the US.

The Ministry’s Department of Animal Health has reported that it has completed a thorough review of import records and could find no indication of any meat coming across the border from any of the Brazil companies under investigation.

Meanwhile, China, the largest export market for Brazilian beef, plus Chile and Egypt have lifted previously imposed bans on the meat in response to the dramatic reports about the investigations into irregularities.

With the re-approval of exports to China, there is always a possibility of uninspected beef finding its way through unofficial channels into the Vietnam marketplace.

In the first two months of 2017, prior to the recent scandal, China had imported 40,000 metric tons of beef from Brazil, against average monthly imports last year of 14,000 metric tons.

There are 4,800 red meat processing plants in Brazil and the ban remains in place in Vietnam for only 21 of those units, according to the Ministry. The problem is much smaller than originally reported in much of the press.