EU follows China and bans Brazilian poultry exports after bird flu outbreak

Brazil, the world’s largest poultry exporter and main poultry meat importer into the European Union, is no longer allowed to ship poultry and meat products to the EU due to the outbreak of bird flu, the European Commission said on Monday.

This comes after Brazil confirmed its first outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm on Friday, triggering protocols for a countrywide trade ban from top buyer China and statewide restrictions for other major consumers such as Japan.

“EU import conditions require that the country of export [Brazil] is free of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza,” a European Commission spokesperson said in an email.

“Brazilian authorities can no longer sign such animal health certificates for export into the EU and such certificates cannot be issued. No poultry/meat products can be exported to the EU from any part of the Brazilian territory.”

Brazil Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said on Monday that the country, which confirmed the first bird flu case on Friday, would be considered bird flu-free if there were no new cases of the disease confirmed in a 28-day time span.

This does not mean that exports would be restored immediately, but Brazil would be in a position to negotiate with buyers to relax current bans, he told TV reporters.