THE LIMITED EU ban on importing beef from Brazil must be extended to cover all exports, the Irish Farmers Association said yesterday.
The farm organisation which forced an export ban on Brazilian beef some years ago on foot of its investigation into farming practices there, said it had found more reports of Brazilian beef being banned from the US.
IFA president John Bryan said the United States department of agriculture identified a third case in the last week of Brazilian beef failing to meet acceptable standards.
“The commissioner for health and consumer policy, John Dalli must move immediately to ban Brazilian beef and withdraw any similar products on supermarket shelves as European consumers, like those in the US, must be equally protected,” he said.
Mr Bryan said confirmation Brazil’s largest exporter had been stopped by the US authorities from exporting beef because it breached permitted levels of animal medicine residues left the EU Commission with no choice but to put a full ban back in place.
The EU had eased the ban on Brazilian beef imports but limited these imports from designated farms which had been inspected by EU experts. Mr Bryan, who led the investigation into beef farming in Brazil, said the IFA would be insisting the EU Commission reassessed the testing procedures used during their visits to Brazil.