Brazil’s meat industry is showing signs that ‘the worst has passed’ following an investigation into suspected fraud in some of the country’s largest slaughterhouses, according to figures from the Brazilian government.
The Ministry of Development, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC) said that exports were returning to normal levels, as confidence slowly bleeds back into the country’s meat sector.
The volume of fresh beef exports in March fell on the same month last year, but total meat exports – including pork and chicken – managed to hold onto growth.
But MDIC director of statistics and export support Herlon Brandão said that beef exports had already shown a ‘downward’ trend since the beginning of the year, and now believes that the sorry circumstances lend themselves to a return to growth.
“The analysis is that the worst has passed,” Brandão said. “It was a shock, but we noticed that shipments quickly normalized and the month ended with growth in meat exports.”
The projection was welcomed by the Associação Brasileira de Frigoríficos (Abrafrigo), which represents the country’s beef producers.
Some of the world’s largest economies – including China, Canada, Japan, Mexico and all European Union (EU) member states – either banned or curtailed imports of Brazilian meat amid accusations of malpractice in the supply chain.
A police investigation accused health officials of taking bribes to allow unsafe meat to be exported overseas – including some beef that may have been rotten or contaminated.
The so-called Carne Fraca scandal, which implicated BRF and JBS among others, led to a dramatic fallout and fears that Brazilian meat exports might have been damaged on a similar level to China’s dairy industry following the tainted milk scandal that affected thousands of babies nearly ten years ago.
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