Brazil admits further irregularities
Having already admitted that some beef exported to the European Union may not have met regulatory standards, Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Husbandry and Fisheries has discovered another six “certified” farms failing to comply with Sisbov (Brazilian System for the Identification and Certification of Bovines and Buffalo) regulations during an audit in the state of Mato Grosso.
A statement released by the ministry said: "Six companies that were authorised to certify and trace cattle under the Sisbov (Brazilian System for the Identification and Certfication of Bovines and Buffalo) in the State of Mato Grosso have been found to be operating irregularly and have had their activities suspended.”
Luiz Henrique Gonçalves Pires, chief of the Technical Division of the Federal Superintendency for Agricultural Matters (SFA), said that the Ministry had been carrying out systematic 'conformity' auditing at all certifying firms Mato Grosso. He said: “We do two types of auditing: the first one is done to check the companies' registration documents; the second one checks the farms against the information provided by the certifiers. Everything must comply with the new Sisbov standards and rules.”
The companies involved were Agritrace Sistemas de Rastreabilidade Agropecuária Ltda in Água Boa; Export – Certificadora e Rastreadora de Produtos Agropecuários in Cuiabá; Fnet Tecnologia Ltda in Rondonópolis; Acellere in Pontes e Lacerda; and Bov-ID in Juara. Another operator, Tecnagro, in Rondonópolis, has also been closed by its owners.
