By Zainab Al Nasseri — MUSCAT: March 28 - The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries said that it has taken all precautionary measures to ensure the safety of all food products imported from Brazil to the Sultanate.
The ministry gave instructions to all veterinarians at the vet quarantine at all border points to tighten control measures and intensify the inspection by collecting samples from all poultry and meat shipments imported from Brazil. The samples should be analysed at the ministry’s labs and shipments should be placed under custody till tests prove that they are free from any diseases.
The move comes in view of the Brazilian authorities suspending trade activities of 21 Brazilian companies on grounds of unhealthy practices in production and packing processes.
Some countries around the world have banned poultry products from Brazil, while others banned only imported meat from certain factories under investigation, quoting the reason that contaminated poultry foods have been seized and those factories
that produced and packed them were shut in Brazil.
The ministry added in a statement on Tuesday that it has stopped new import licences from Brazil and that
it verifies the exporting slaughter houses companies. If any exporter is included in the list of violating companies, the import permit for that particular company or slaughter house will be halted.
The ministry added that communication is maintained with the government of Brazil through official channels.
“All Brazilian meat and poultry products are stacked up at our counters as well as warehouses for want of customers who declined to buy even the products with older batch numbers, “country manager of a leading hypermarket chain told the Observer, adding that they have removed all those products in question.
Companies in Oman, both independent entities and authorised agencies import millions of rials worth Brazilian products every year for local consumption and meat and poultry products from Brazil enjoy a good market here.
An expert in Oman’s poultry business said that there are more than 5,000 Brazilian companies exporting their food products to more than 160 countries around the world including the GCC, and that this is the first such case of irregularities in Brazilian food products at least in the Gulf.
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