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Since Wednesday, April 20, the Russian embargo on Brazilian beef and pork has been lifted. The announcement was made by the Russian National Sanitary and Phytosanitary Inspection Service and the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply.
With this decision, Brazil is able to resume commercial transactions with the chief foreign consumer of Brazilian meat. In 2004, Russia bought US$ 867 million worth of meat from Brazil, equivalent to 14% of the country's total exports of this product.
The suspension of the embargo excludes the states of Pará, Amazonas, Acre, Rondônia, Tocantins, Maranhão, and Roraima. According to the director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Department of Sanitary Affairs, Odilson Ribeiro, the limitation will not have a negative impact, because none of these states has packing plants licensed to export meat to Russia.
"We can say that the embargo is over, because all the Brazilian states with licensed establishments have already resumed their exports," he affirmed.
According to Ribeiro, the Ministry is engaged in restructuring animal health protection and implenmenting health control programs.
The Russian embargo on Brazilian meat began in September, 2004, when an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease was detected in the municipality of Careiro do Várzea, in the state of Amazonas.
Last November, Russia authorized the importation of meat from Santa Catarina, the only Brazilian state rid of the disease without the need for vaccination.
Agência Brasil
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