Diane Dodds MEP has called on the European Commission to impose a complete ban on all imports of Brazilian beef. This call comes following a presentation on Brazilian beef by the European Commissions Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) to the European Parliament Agriculture and Rural Development Committee, Diane Dodds believes that it is only right that beef imported into Europe should be produced to the same standard as expected of Northern Ireland farmers. Commenting after the Committee meeting in Brussels, Mrs Dodds said:
"The latest FVO report identifies fifty per cent of the Brazilian farms inspected as having either major or minor faults, in areas such as animal identification, paperwork traceability and their non-existent movement controls. While such deficiencies are totally unacceptable here in the United Kingdom, it would appear that they continue to be common place in Brazil. Such disparity in standards only exemplifies the unequal treatment of producers here in the UK.
The new rules that came into place after the total ban on Brazilian beef are clearly failing to address serious concerns over standards. We now have over one thousand Brazilian producers authorised to import beef into the EU. This figure is constantly creeping upwards but in light of the latest FVO findings the only sensible course of action must be a pre-emptive ban on all imports until standards improve to the levels imposed on UK producers.
The Commission must recognise that this situation is totally unacceptable and must rethink their assessment that the current standards are adequate. Within Northern Ireland, farmers who have breach strict cross compliance rules not only would have their single farm payment removed but their animals would not be allowed to enter the food chain. If is wrong Northern Ireland farmers to be asked to jump through hoops and compete against product that is produced in another region of the world that has been produced under less strict rules. The only pathway for the Commission to take is a complete ban and I will be writing to the Commissioner calling for the immediate pursuance of this course of action."
