ABCC commends Brazil’s transparent and swift response to bird flu issue

The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) has commended the Brazilian authorities and companies for their swift, clear, transparent, and organized response to the recent cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI A H5N1) in wild birds within the country. The Chamber affirmed that the disease has not infected any commercial poultry.

Tamer Mansour secretary-general & CEO of ABCC said: “The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and poultry-exporting enterprises’ stance has been ‘clear’, ‘transparent’, and ‘organised’, which is why the disease has not affected production units. No Arab country has requested a formal or official consultation for this issue. This is due to Brazil’s transparency in providing information. As a result, the Arab countries’ position is to monitor the situation.”

Mansour further stated that he has been scrutinising the incidents at the request of the Arab countries, as the chicken exports to the Arab world amounts to 32 per cent of the nation’s exports.

The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture is still monitoring farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the outbreaks. It also established an extraordinary credit line of BRL 200 million (approximately USD 40.32 million at the current exchange rate) to monitor the sickness, which has so far had little effect on exports.

In the case of Arab states, the ABCC already verifies the health certifications of goods exported to Arab League countries on a regular basis. According to the entity, the process is proceeding regularly, suggesting that shipments are being accepted in Arab ports, which received 506,200 tonnes of chicken from Brazil from January to May 2023, a number comparable to the same period in 2022.

Mansour used his discussions with Arab nations to emphasise that Brazil’s poultry derivatives production chain is extremely verticalized and already adheres to stringent sanitary measures before the untoward occurrences began. Following the confirmation of bird flu cases, these precautions were strengthened, including a complete prohibition on access to breeding sites.

The organisation sent a note to Arab embassies in Brazil emphasising that the confirmation of HPAI A H5N1 cases does not change the country’s position as a disease-free zone according to World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).