São Paulo, 18 August (EFE) – Japan has announced the lifting of an embargo imposed a month ago on the import of chicken from the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina (south), following two cases of avian influenza infection in poultry. Regional Governor Jorginho Mello is in charge this Friday.
“Santa Catarina is free of bird flu. We are a benchmark state in the field of animal health and the specific problem of bird flu has been addressed to some extent,” Mello said when announcing the end of the embargo. Katarini Sai.
Japan is the main buyer of Santa Catarina chicken, accounting for 14.75% of the region’s exports, equivalent to $310.8 million in 2022.
Brazil is the world’s largest chicken exporter, accounting for 35% of the international market. Due to the first outbreak of wild bird flu, Brazil declared a national animal health emergency on May 22.
To date, 80 outbreaks of the disease have been detected, most of them in wild birds and only 2 in domestic food animals, one in Espirito Santo state and one in Santa Cata Rina state, which led Japan to impose an embargo on July 17.
Since the introduction of the disease into the country, no cases of the disease have been recorded on commercial farms.
Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro traveled to Japan in July to discuss the case with the country’s authorities and met with governors and representatives of 27 Brazilian states, asking them to step up containment efforts to prevent the outbreak from spreading. .
Official data show that in the first half of the year, Brazil exported 2.63 million tons of chicken meat, of which Japan exported 219,800 tons, an increase of 8.5% over the same period in 2022. EFE
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