The Irish Farmers\u2019 Association’s (IFA) president Francie Gorman has welcomed the European Commission\u2019s announcement that an all-out ban of Brazilian meat imports is on the table, but he criticised Brussels for the time taken for action on concerns around Brazilian beef.<\/p>\n
Tuesday saw member states vote to take Brazil off the list of countries permitted to export meat and animal products to the EU due to non-compliance with EU antibiotic rules, with the updated list to take effect from September 2026, if the country fails to take corrective action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission is finally taking the antibiotic and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) threat posed by Brazilian beef production somewhat seriously,\u201d Gorman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis follows the IFA-Irish Farmers Journal investigation of the unregulated use of all levels of antibiotics in the Brazil late last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
November\u2019s IFA-Irish Farmers Journal investigation into the standards of Brazilian beef production uncovered major discrepancies in the country\u2019s over-the-counter sale of antibiotics and hormones banned in the EU.<\/p>\n
‘Startling’<\/p>\n
\u201cThe IFA made a detailed submission on our findings to EU institutions and it is only now they are being taken seriously,\u201d Gorman commented, referring to the findings as \u201cstartling\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to purchase any amount of any type of antibiotics we wanted without so much as being asked for our names, the animal type or symptoms to be treated, a prescription, or even a farm identifier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a significant number of the outlets, there wasn’t even an inventory check with antibiotics sold to us across the counter for cash without scanning or recording the sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called for Tuesday\u2019s delisting announcement to \u201cnow be backed up by meaningful actions\u201d<\/p>\n
The IFA president accused the Commission of ignoring the findings of the Brazilian \u201cin their rush to sell out Irish and EU farmers for big industry in the Mercosur trade deal\u201d. <\/p>\n
He called for Tuesday\u2019s delisting announcement to \u201cnow be backed up by meaningful actions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brazilian authorities do not have a good track record of compliance with EU auditors and trade requirements as evidenced by the finding of the DG Sante inspections,\u201d Gorman continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no fudging of this issue by the Commission; there can be no short cuts taken with an issue this serious for human and animal health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorman said that the starting point of Brazilian compliance with EU food safety rules must be the creation of a database of all cattle animals in the country and the incorporation of prescribing, dispensing and treatment records similar to the system in play in Ireland, which he added would take years to complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil this happens, not one ounce of Brazilian beef should be allowed enter the EU if the Commission are serious about AMR and if today’s announcement is to have any credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Irish Farmers\u2019 Association’s (IFA) president Francie Gorman has welcomed the European Commission\u2019s announcement that an all-out ban of Brazilian meat imports is on the table, but he criticised Brussels for the time taken for action on concerns around Brazilian beef.<\/p>\n
Tuesday saw member states vote to take Brazil off the list of countries permitted to export meat and animal products to the EU due to non-compliance with EU antibiotic rules, with the updated list to take effect from September 2026, if the country fails to take corrective action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission is finally taking the antibiotic and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) threat posed by Brazilian beef production somewhat seriously,\u201d Gorman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis follows the IFA-Irish Farmers Journal investigation of the unregulated use of all levels of antibiotics in the Brazil late last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
November\u2019s IFA-Irish Farmers Journal investigation into the standards of Brazilian beef production uncovered major discrepancies in the country\u2019s over-the-counter sale of antibiotics and hormones banned in the EU.<\/p>\n
‘Startling’<\/p>\n
\u201cThe IFA made a detailed submission on our findings to EU institutions and it is only now they are being taken seriously,\u201d Gorman commented, referring to the findings as \u201cstartling\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to purchase any amount of any type of antibiotics we wanted without so much as being asked for our names, the animal type or symptoms to be treated, a prescription, or even a farm identifier.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a significant number of the outlets, there wasn’t even an inventory check with antibiotics sold to us across the counter for cash without scanning or recording the sale.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called for Tuesday\u2019s delisting announcement to \u201cnow be backed up by meaningful actions\u201d<\/p>\n
The IFA president accused the Commission of ignoring the findings of the Brazilian \u201cin their rush to sell out Irish and EU farmers for big industry in the Mercosur trade deal\u201d. <\/p>\n
He called for Tuesday\u2019s delisting announcement to \u201cnow be backed up by meaningful actions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brazilian authorities do not have a good track record of compliance with EU auditors and trade requirements as evidenced by the finding of the DG Sante inspections,\u201d Gorman continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no fudging of this issue by the Commission; there can be no short cuts taken with an issue this serious for human and animal health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorman said that the starting point of Brazilian compliance with EU food safety rules must be the creation of a database of all cattle animals in the country and the incorporation of prescribing, dispensing and treatment records similar to the system in play in Ireland, which he added would take years to complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil this happens, not one ounce of Brazilian beef should be allowed enter the EU if the Commission are serious about AMR and if today’s announcement is to have any credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish Farmers\u2019 Association’s (IFA) president Francie Gorman has welcomed the European Commission\u2019s announcement that an all-out ban…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10260,10261,3071,370,9758,10262,18,10263,10264,372,144,9759],"class_list":{"0":"post-15377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-animal-health","9":"tag-antibiotics","10":"tag-beef","11":"tag-brazil","12":"tag-brazilian-beef","13":"tag-brazilian-investigation","14":"tag-brussels","15":"tag-food-safety","16":"tag-francie-gorman","17":"tag-mercosur","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-noel-bardon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116564223944129261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}