Saudi Arabia Bans Imports of Chickens From Five Brazilian Slaughterhouses | New

Saudi Arabia's decision was taken on Monday (21). According to the Brazilian Animal Protein Association, five refrigerators have been cut and can no longer be exported to this country. A Saudi mission visited Brazil in October 2018 and visited refrigerators, farms and animal feed factories.

Brazil is the largest chicken exporter in the world and Saudi Arabia, our largest importer, with purchases of US $ 808 million in 2018.

To meet In this market, producers use the technique of halal slaughter, which means legal – requires, among other things, that the animal be slaughtered by a Muslim and that death be fast to avoid suffering.

The Ministry of Agriculture is limited to talking about refrigerators still allowed. In Brazil, 58 refrigerators were able to export to Saudi Arabia. Of these, 30 were exported normally.

According to the note, the Saudi health services now qualify 25 Brazilian establishments as exporters of chicken meat to this country and this group responded in 2018 to 63% of the volume of Brazilian meat exports. of chicken – a percentage corresponding to 437 000 tonnes for Saudi Arabia out of a total of 692 000 tonnes.

After President Jair Bolsonaro announced his intention to change the Brazilian Embbady in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which displeased the Arab world. But so far, there is no evidence that this announcement by the Brazilian government has had an impact on trade relations.

The current president, Hamilton Mourão, asked if the eventual change of the embbady would justify the decision of Saudi Arabia. He replied: "The embbady is not changed yet, the staff anticipates the enemy."

There is also no official explanation as to why these five refrigerators should be suspended. The second technicians heard by TV Globo, disabled refrigerators will have to submit an action plan for re-export. They cite another factor: Saudi Arabia wants to reduce the volume of global imports from 60% to 40% in the coming years.

The Brazilian Association for Animal Proteins said that she had only been informed of technical problems, but she is also convinced that the adoption of protectionist barriers could be at least Origin of this decision.

"It's a marketing theme, protecting the local market, it sounds incredible, desert, but they invest a lot in poultry and farm building and want to have a minimum of food security so they can rely on that protein because they do not consume pork.It is therefore very important that they produce poultry.We are very confident because we do not complain about lack of conditions, quality, sanity, absolutely nothing, "said Francisco Turra, president of the badociation.

At the end of the day, industry representatives had a brief meeting with the Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina. They are working to overturn Saudi Arabia's decision.