The Bresaola della Valtellina supply chain is experiencing great concern over the EU Commission's ban on meat imports from Brazil . The import ban will begin tomorrow due to Brazilian operators' failure to certify their supply chain that they have not used an antimicrobial banned in Europe in their cattle farming.
"Let's be clear right away," explains Davide Calderone , director of Assica, the association of cured meat producers, "that there is no health risk for consumers here. The point is that Brazil, also as a result of the EU-Mercosur agreement, should have adopted this certification system to exclude the use of antimicrobials, and hasn't yet done so. Producers in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, the other signatories of the EU-Mercosur agreement, have done so, and we are trying to increase our imports from them."
While it's clear that potential health risks aren't up for discussion, economic issues remain, especially for a premium Italian food product like Bresaola della Valtellina PGI, which relies on foreign, particularly Brazilian, raw materials.
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Source: Il Sole 24 Ore