Brasilia | Reuters — Brazil’s meatpacking industry has been badly damaged by a police investigation into alleged unsanitary and corrupt practices, and could lose upward of 10 per cent of its global market share, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said Wednesday.
Maggi told a Senate committee that the main concern was with the China and Hong Kong not having taken a definitive stance on their bans of meat from Brazil, the world’s biggest producer of beef and poultry.
The minister added that unless quick action is taken by the government, it could take Brazil up to five years to recoup its market share.
Other jurisdictions suspending imports of some Brazilian meat products include Japan, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland and the European Union.
— Reporting for Reuters by Marina Carolina Marcello; writing by Brad Brooks.
