DA to lift ban on meat imports from Brazil
Imported meat products coming from Brazil may soon be allowed to enter the country, as the government is now looking to lift next month the ban preventing the Latin American country to ship the said commodity here due to salmonella.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said that based on the reports of the government's inspection team, the country's ban on Brazil's imported meat and its products could already be lifted some time in November. This was in contrast with an earlier report that says the ban could be lifted this month.
It was in August when all foreign meat establishments (FMEs) from Brazil have temporarily lost their accreditation to do business here in the Philippines, following the government's decision to ban all meat imports from Brazil after its local shipments were tested positive for salmonella.
"A recommendation has already been made to lift the ban but we have to go through the process. We have to convene that body, which has to come up with the decision on the lifting," Piñol said in an interview with reporters.
"I can't order until such time we've gone through all the process... But based on their (inspection team) reports, we will lift the ban by November," he added.
For his part, National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) Executive Director Ernesto Gonzalez earlier said that the inspection team of the government has already completed the inspection of suspended FMEs.
In August, the DA placed a temporary suspension of the accreditation of all Brazilian FMEs to export meat in the Philippines.
This decision came after reports of alleged rotten meat that arrived here from Brazil in March, which eventually prompted DA's NMIS to issue a memorandum order instructing all Regional Technical Operating Centers to perform more rigorous and tight inspections on all arrivals of beef and poultry meat from Brazil shipped from March onwards.
A total of 246 out of 492 container vans were then sampled and subjected to laboratory analysis from March to June. (MBM)