São Paulo – Egypt’s government has lifted its embargo on imports of beef from Brazil’s Mato Grosso state following a meeting between the Brazilian minister of Agriculture, Neri Geller, and his Egyptian counterpart, Adel El-Betagy, this Thursday (28th) in Cairo.
“All of the technical inquiries have been responded to and the ban should be lifted next Monday,” Geller told ANBA over the telephone. The embargo will end on Monday because Friday is a weekend day in Egypt. According to Geller, a heated technical and scientific debate took place between Egyptian and Brazilian government officials throughout this Thursday before an understanding was reached.
Egypt stopped buying beef from Mato Grosso last May, following Brazil’s announcement that the causative agent of bovine spongiform encephalopathy – aka mad cow disease – had been detected in an animal in the state.
The case was ruled “atypical” because, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, the animal died of old age rather than contamination. Brazil’s risk status for the disease remains negligible according to the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE).
Geller is currently in the Egyptian capital with a delegation of government officials, business executives and sector organization representatives, among them the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Michel Alaby and Government Relations manager Tamer Mansour.
According to Alaby, other topics discussed with Egypt’s Agriculture minister include extending the stated shelf life of refrigerated beef exported from Brazil from 21 to 90 days, which is the shelf life for product from other countries; eliminating the requirement for individual inspection of poultry shipped from Brazil to Egypt, implemented this year; and opening up the Egyptian market to processed poultry from Brazil.
“We are aware that [opening the market to processed poultry] is a sensitive matter, but it must be put on the table, because [Egyptian] importers are interested, and this would allow for an increased supply to consumers and a lower end price,” Alaby remarked.
By the way, the Brazilian delegation had backing from Egyptian importers in some of its demands. At another meeting held this Thursday with the minister of Commerce and Industry, Mounir Fakry, Egyptian businessmen and delegates from the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce reported that the embargo on beef from Mato Grosso and the inspection of every poultry shipment, as opposed to sampling-based inspection, hinder trade and drive up costs.
Geller said the poultry inspection issue is well underway, but no conclusion has been reached yet.
Exports from Brazil to Egypt amounted to nearly US$ 1.2 billion from January to July this year, up 14.5% from the same period last year. The main items shipped were meats, sugar and soy.
Obstacles in Brazil
But Egyptians also pointed out Brazilian government measures that affect trade, including a recent ruling from Brazil’s Foreign Trade Chamber (Camex) to impose an anti-dumping surcharge on glass imported from Egypt. Fakry said the ruling came despite the fact that sales amounted to a meagre US$ 25 million last year. Moreover, traditionally, the trade balance runs a deficit on Egypt’s side, which amounted to US$ 1.9 billion last year.
In this respect, Mounir Fakry called on the Brazilian government to strive to ratify Egypt’s trade agreement with the Mercosur at the Brazilian National Congress and at other parliaments within the South American bloc. The treaty was signed in 2010 and has already been ratified by Egypt.
“We must allow a greater influx of Egyptian products to the Brazilian market, and by extension, to the Mercosur countries,” Alaby stressed. “ [The agreement’s] full ratification will enable stronger bilateral trade and lower taxes on a series of Brazilian products in Egypt, such as poultry, which is currently taxed at 30%, whereas if [the treaty] was already in force, it would only be taxed at 21%,” he added.
Fakry remarked that this is a good time for broadening economic relations between the two countries, since Egypt has a new president, the recently-inaugurated Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and is looking to attract foreign investment. Last Wednesday, Neri Geller was surprised with an invitation to an unscheduled meeting with Sisi, as reported by ANBA. One of the industries Sisisaid Egypt plans on developing is fertilizers. Geller left the meeting optimistic and confident that bilateral trade is set to soar.
Geller noted that a cooperation agreement was signed with the Egyptian government and a workgroup should be appointed to work on the fertilizer issue through mutual technical and trade missions. He also said Egypt has a surplus production which it can export to Brazil, and that Brazil can sell larger amounts of products such as maize, soy and poultry to Egypt. “Many good things have happened in this trip,” the minister said. “We will follow up with them,” he said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
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