This article is from page 69 of the 2008-03-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 69 JPG
BRAZILIAN beef is back on the table, literally, after the EU bottled it’s month long ban on beef imports from the South American country.
The farming organisations have been up in arms about the decision to recommence importing cattle from Brazil, with Clare farmer and ICSA General secretary, Eddie Punch, de- scribing the decision as stunning and ObTSeabrianetee
“ICSA has always maintained that nothing short of a full ban would ever be acceptable, and we have proven that the Brazilians cannot be trusted. It is inconceivable that the Brazilians should be taken at their word, without FVO inspections, giv- en their history of unreliability,” said the Cratloe man.
The ICSA, in one of a number of farm organisations, who have lodged complaint with the EU ombudsman, questioning the EU commission’s duty of care towards EU consumers.
Another is the ICMSA, whose pres- ident, Jackie Cahill, has condemned the decision by the EU Commission to permit the importation of beef from 106 Brazilian ranches to the European market.
“The news that the Commission has rolled-over in these circumstances is unfortunately as predictable as it 1s disappointing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the IFA are attempting to put a positive gloss on the situa-
tion, with President Padraig Walshe saying that saying that the decision to place the 106 Brazilian farms on a list for export to the EU will have no impact on Irish cattle prices as the volume will be no more than 2,000 tonnes.
According to the farming leader, the volume is negligible and less than | per cent of the 330,000 tonnes of beef imported from Brazil in 2006 and 2007.
“Nothing has changed in Brazil — the deficiencies still exist and their standards do not meet EU require- ments,” he said.
‘The Commission decision makes a mockery of European food trace- ability standards, with stringent regulations for European farmers and non-compliance for Brazilians. It is incredible in the light of the ad- mission by the Brazilian Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes that untraceable beef had been exported by Brazil.”
IFA Livestock Chairman Michael Doran said that prior to the IFA cam- paign Brazil was exporting beef from between 10,000 and 15,000 farms to Europe, which failed to meet EU standards. “Initially, Brazil had at- tempted to have 2,800 farms cleared for export, but this was rejected by the EU because they failed to meet the necessary standards. After sev- eral rejections by the EU, Brazil reduced the list down to 106 farms involving 86,000 cattle,” he said.