By Isabel Teles and Ana Mano
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -The European Union has recognized Brazil as a bird-flu free country, a move that will allow the resumption of chicken meat exports to the bloc, Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Thursday on social media X.
In a subsequent statement, the agriculture ministry explained Favaro held “a high-level meeting” via videoconference with Brazil’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Andre de Paula, and the EU’s Commissioner for Animal Health and Welfare, Oliver Varhelyi.
According to the ministry’s statement, the European Commissioner was satisfied with information provided by Brazilian authorities related to a bird flu outbreak on a chicken breeder farm in Southern Brazil this year.
“Minister Favaro, I have good news: our assessment is that the data provided by your ministry is sufficient to recognize that Brazil is free of avian influenza,” Varhelyi was quoted as saying in the statement.
“In practice, this means that we will move forward with the Member States to propose the gradual lifting of bans and restrictions on Brazilian exports, progressively reinstating all previously authorized areas,” he added.
Brazil reported its first ever bird flu outbreak last May, which led to several countries imposing restrictions on its chicken exports until the outbreak was controlled.
China is a major chicken importer which has maintained restrictions against Brazilian poultry products after the outbreak while other nations have gradually lifted them.
Through June, the European Union had imported 125,300 tons of chicken meat from Brazil, a 20.8% annual rise, generating sales of $386.3 million, according to trade data compiled by Brazil’s chicken and pork lobby ABPA.
(Reporting by Isabel Teles and Ana Mano; Editing by Leslie Adler)
