Brazil says China lifts ban on meat

Source: Xinhua | 2017-03-27

BRAZIL, trying to recover from a rotten meat scandal that has pummeled its agribusiness industry, said on Saturday that major trading partner China has lifted a ban on imports of its products.

“China announced today (Saturday) it has fully reopened its market to Brazilian meat,” Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said in a statement.

Maggi did not say when the resumption of Brazilian meat imports, suspended on March 20 by China, would take effect.

Maggi said China will keep in place only its import curbs on meat from 21 Brazilian processing plants under investigation over the tainted meat scandal.

China is the biggest national consumer of Brazilian meat.

The reopening of the Chinese market “attests to the rigor and quality of the Brazilian sanitary system,” Maggi said.

The scandal emerged on March 17 when Brazilian police said they had uncovered a scheme to bribe corrupt health inspectors at those processing plants to certify tainted meat as fit for consumption.