Canada OKs imports of beef and pork from Brazil

(Corrects to reflect Agriculture Ministry’s clarification that Brazil’s farm products companies (not only meatpackers) can access more than 200 markets after Canada cleared Brazil’s beef, pork imports)

(Reuters) -Canada has approved the importation of beef and pork from Brazil, which had been blocked over health concerns, authorities from both countries said on Monday.

“We are in Ottawa and have just left the Canadian Ministry of Agriculture with … great news: the opening up of the country’s pork and beef market,” Brazilian Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias tweeted.

Asked for comment, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency told Reuters it “approved the import of raw and cooked poultry meat, pork and pH matured beef from Brazil” last Friday.

Dias, who traveled to Canada to speak with potash companies and other suppliers of fertilizers, said Brazilian farm products companies will now be able to export products to more than 200 markets around the world, which was her goal when she took over the ministry more than three years ago.

Brazilian pork and poultry lobby ABPA welcomed the announcement, but said the clearance for pork only extends to establishments in Santa Catarina, as the Southern Brazilian state was the only one recognized as free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination at the time of the initial request.

Santa Catarina accounts for more than 50% of Brazil’s pork exports, ABPA said.

Negotiations between Brazil and Canada continue relating to others areas now recognized as free of the disease by the World Organization for Animal Health.

(Reporting by Ana Mano, Gabriel Araújo and Peter Frontini; Editing by Andrea Ricci, Richard Chang and Tim Ahmann)