Saudi ports to increase checks on Brazil meat amid scandal

Saudi Arabia has ordered its port inspectors to intensify checks on meat imported from Brazil, following reports that sub-standard and rotten meat had been exported out of the Latin American country.

The Saudi Food & Drugs Authority also asked its inspectors to take samples of the meat to make sure they meet standards, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The action comes after China and Hong Kong – two of the biggest buyers of Brazil’s meat – banned imports from the country.  Chinese supermarkets have also pulled Brazilian meat products from their shelves, while the European Union has called for a partial ban.

Economists warned that if Saudi Arabia were to also consider similar curbs, it could further weigh on Brazil’s already beleageured economy.

“If Saudi banned all imports of Brazilian meat for a full year it would knock about 0.1 percent off Brazil's GDP,” Neil Shearing, chief emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, told Argaam. “It would obviously depend on how long any ban was to stay in place and what it was to cover,” he added.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s second-largest buyer of Brazil’s chicken and the top buyer for Brazil’s agri-products in the Middle East.

The kingdom’s transactions for Brazil’s agribusiness products touched $426.5 million in the first two months of 2017, an increase of almost 30 percent over last year, according to data released by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.

Saudi Arabia last banned imports of cold and frozen cattle meat from Brazil in 2012, after a World Organization for Animal Health report revealed cases of mad cow disease. The embargo was lifted in 2015 after the Paris-based organization classified Brazil as a country with negligible hazards of the mad cow disease.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Egypt is said to be tightening inspection rules at ports and will hold off on issuing new import permits until Brazil’s investigations are complete, Bloomberg reported, citing Hamad Abdel-Dayem, spokesman for Egypt’s Agriculture Ministry.

Write to Nadeshda Zareen at nadeshda.zareen@argaamplus.com