The EU will carry out an audit in Brazil later this month which could lead to Brazilian poultry exports avoiding a potential ban.

In May, the European Commission confirmed that Brazil will no longer be authorised to export a range of animal products to the EU from September 3.

This includes both food producing live animals and derived products - such as beef, poultry, eggs honey and casings.

It followed a vote by member states on an updated list of third countries authorised to export food-producing animals and animal products to the EU.

The commission has said that in order to be included on this list, Brazil must ensure compliance with the EU requirements on the use of antimicrobials for the entire lifetime of the animals that the exported products originate from.

Brazil

Brazil said it is still awaiting a "conclusive statement" from European authorities regarding "robust technical documentation" submitted by the Brazilian government "detailing the official inspection mechanisms and government guarantees for each of the production chains covered by European regulations".

"Brazil has not requested any relaxation of European sanitary regulations," the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), said in a statement.

"The Brazilian state's commitment has always been to fully meet the requirements established by importing markets, as it has done for decades.

"Brazil exports animal products to more than 150 countries, including notoriously demanding markets, a result of the international credibility of its official agricultural defense system," it added.

Audit

A spokesperson for the EU Commission told Agriland that they are in "close contact with the Brazilian authorities on this issue".

"Brazil has submitted information for certain commodities, namely beef, poultry, eggs, honey and aquaculture products.

"Due to the duration of the production cycles for the various animal species, the dates on which Brazil may be able to certify compliance with EU requirements for the different species differs," they added.

In order to verify that the guarantees of compliance with the EU requirements are effectively implemented in practice, the EU's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) will carry out an audit in Brazil at the end of August.

"For the other commodities not included in the scope of the audit, either Brazil cannot provide the required lifetime guarantees at the time of the audit (e.g. beef, eggs) or exports to the Union are de facto not authorised (e.g. aquaculture)," the spokesperson added.

EU officials will product a report on the outcome of the audit in the "following weeks".

"Should the audit outcome be positive, the commission may consider proposing an amendment to the list of authorised third countries in order to reinclude Brazil for poultry, and/or honey.

"Any such proposal would be submitted for a vote by the member states in standing committee.

"The outcome of the audit cannot be anticipated and at this stage, the commission cannot provide any tentative timeline," the spokesperson said.

The latest data from the EU Commission shows that poultry imports from Brazil stood at almost 155,000 tonnes (carcass weight) in the first four months of this year, up 32% on the same period last year.