South Korea no longer to bar Brazil meat imports

In a statement made today (Mar. 21), President Michel Temer said South Korea overturned its decision to bar Brazilian meat imports due to the accusations surfaced as part of Operation Weak Flesh, a probe into irregular inspections at processing plants. The crackdown was launched Friday (17).

In his opening speech at the 2017 Latin American Cities Conference, in Brasília, Temer further said he is not familiar with all the details concerning the current position of the South Korean government, but he believes it came as a reaction to the clarifications provided by the Brazilian authorities.

The president noted he has already ordered the creation of a task force to further probe into the irregularities and mentioned the measures adopted to prevent the economy from suffering any more harm. “The officials [charged] were ousted by the minister of agriculture, Blairo Maggi, yesterday.”

Temer once again mentioned figures he believes paint an accurate picture of the problems identified by the probe started by the Federal Police: “We have some 4,383 processing plants. Of these, only three had their activities suspended due to the investigations; 19 are being targeted. The ministry is made up of 11,300 officials, and only 30 have been brought under investigation. Some of them have already been fired,” the president reiterated.

In addition, he said, “over the last six months, we had 860 thousand shipments of animal protein leaving the country. Only 184 were reassessed—not for sanitary reasons, but because of packaging and things of this sort,” he added.

The 2017 Latin American Cities Conference gathers authorities, investors, and executives in Brasília to discuss Brazilian perspectives towards the economy, trade, infrastructure, and the investment agenda.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira