The Brazilian embassy in Beijing informed Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture’s Department of International Relations that the Chinese government has imposed restrictions on Brazilian beef, pork, and lamb. The measure was announced on the website of the Chinese government’s Animal and Vegetable Quarantine Department.
According to the ministry, China is moving ahead in its policy of increasing domestic production and exports and decreasing imports.
In 2005 Brazil exported nearly US$ 86 million worth of meat to China. At least 92% of the total volume is composed of fresh and frozen chicken, which is not included in the embargo.
Last July, a Chinese mission spent a week in Brazil studying the country’s agriculture. The executive director of the Brazil-China Chamber, Richard Liu, who accompanied the mission, said that the Chinese are also interested "in examinating the possibilities of exchanges with Brazil, mainly in the areas of agricultural technology and trade, to expand bilateral trade links."
In Liu’s opinion, the potential for exchanges, especially in the technological sphere, is "great," because "China possesses considerable knowledge, for example, in irrigation techniques for crops such as rice."
In return, Brazil can offer technology developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Company (Embrapa) to combat pests in crops such as cotton and sugar cane. In these crops, he added, Brazil has many advantages and competitive prices.
Liu emphasized that Brazilian imports of Chinese agricultural products are practically nonexistent and what there is is limited to a very few items, garlic being the most prominent among them.
"But from Brazil to China, the situation is the reverse, because of soybeans and some sugar cane derivatives, such as alcohol," he explained.
The visit to the SNA may also lead to agreements in the organic farming sector. The executive director recalled that "there is a large demand for green products in China, and the government has been stimulating this type of agriculture, in view of the improved living standards of the population."
ABr