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Brazil meat exports drop 19 pct amid meatpacking scandal

Xinhua, March 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

Brazil's meat exports have plummeted 19 percent in the past 10 days, affected by revelation of wrongdoing in the meatpacking industry, the Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade said on Monday.

According to the ministry, the meat exports fell from 62.2 million U.S. dollars a day on average the week before the scandal to an average of 50.5 million dollars a day last week.

The fallout came after the Federal Police announced on March 17 Brazil's largest meatpackers were being investigated for bribing government inspectors to certify expired or adulterated meat.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Weak Flesh, identified 21 meatpackers for violating norms.

Several countries, including South Korea, Japan, Chile, Egypt, Panama and Mexico, as well as the European Union, have temporarily suspended Brazilian meat imports until the country could ensure the quality.

As the largest importer of Brazilian meat, China is highly concerned about the quality issue, Ministry of Commerce Spokesman Sun Jiwen has told a press conference, saying that Chinese authorities have taken "temporary measures" in response to the matter.

On Monday, the 28-member EU said Brazil needs to take prompt action.

"Brazil must act as soon as possible, take measures quickly, with good cooperation and mutual understanding," Agencia Brasil cited Vytenis Andriukaitis, the EU's health and food safety commissioner, as saying.

Andriukaitis, who was in Brazil on a previously scheduled trip, took the opportunity to address the situation and is set to meet with Brazil's agriculture minister on Tuesday over sanitary and quality controls.

Brazil has so far ordered the temporary closure of six of the 21 food processing plants under investigation by the police and health authorities. The other 15 plants are not allowed to export, but they may still produce for the domestic market.

Brazil is the world's largest exporter of beef and chicken, and the fourth-largest of pork. In 2016, Brazilian meat exports to the world brought in around 11 billion dollars and represented 7.2 percent of all the country's exports. Endi