Russia needs Brazilian meat because it is unable to produce enough to feed its population. It buys from Brazil about $1.5 billion worth of meat a year, which is a lot. For Russia, Brazil is one of the biggest butcher shops. When we go to a butcher's, we expect the meat there to be fresh and healthy. But we have detected toxic salmonella in the meat from some Brazilian suppliers and have had to suspend imports from them - not from the whole of Brazil.
A smart owner of a butcher shop would make an effort to get rid of bad meat suppliers without disappointing his customers. Representing Russia as a major buyer of Brazilian meat, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight has criticized its quality more than once. We sent an official letter to our Brazilian partners whenever we imposed restrictions on meat supplies. We asked them to conduct an inquiry into each case so as to prevent toxic meat from coming into Russia.
Moreover, we have come across repeated cases of outright cheating. Our controllers found tags on meat to contain fake expiration dates. In other cases, meat was deliberately mislabeled to make us buy the produce of slaughter-houses that had not been certified by Russian experts. On other occasions veterinary certificates were forged. We were presented with fake certificates for different produce that had already been sent to other countries.
Of course, this is not the Brazilian government but some private dealers that are involved in this swindling. We would expect it to monitor meat suppliers' activities, which is clearly not the case.
It is our duty to guarantee quality of imported foods. We are not finding fault with Brazilian meat. We cannot accept meat from Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana because these states have ineradicable natural hotbeds of foot-and-mouth disease. We want meat to be supplied only from verified suppliers and approved regions. For this reason, we have suggested that our Brazilian colleagues should report to us twice a month about the meat that has left Brazilian ports. We have to know the senders, the addressees and numbers of veterinary certificates. But the information our Brazilian colleagues are sending us is so scattered that we cannot even use it.
As for forged certificates, in the past year the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight addressed the Brazilian authorities three times with a request to make new forgery-safe blanks for veterinary certificates on all types of meat produce exported to Russia. They promised to introduce them on September 1, 2006, then on March 1, 2007, but have not done this up to now. Fake certificates still abound.
In the meantime, we are taking measures to protect our consumers. If we detect salmonella in meat from particular plants, we suspend their supplies; if we see mislabeled produce, we introduce restrictions for those plants; if we come across fake certificates, we blacklist those plants. As we see it, the problem is that Brazilian meat exports to Russia contain smuggled and infected produce. Only the Brazilian national agriculture watchdog can resolve it. Or else, Russia may go to another butcher shop - there are many of these in Latin America and elsewhere.
Alexei Alekseyenko is deputy director with the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
