Zimbabwe beef still banned in Europe

by Alois Sibanda

2012 February 29 08:14:04 | 962 Views

The European Union has revealed that Zimbabwe has not made a formal request to resume beef exports to its member's states.

Zimbabwe last exported beef in 2007 after serious uncontrolled outbreaks of foot and mouth diseases.

Ambassador Aldo Dell'Ariccia, Head of the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe said, "Currently, the export of beef from Zimbabwe to the EU is still not authorised. Apart from the FMD initial banning, Zimbabwe cannot be eligible for bovine meat exports to the EU due to other internal regulations of the EU market."

Aldo Dell'Ariccia said to export to the EU, Zimbabwe (like the rest of the nations exporting to the European countries) needs to comply with technical provisions in several areas: Animal Health, General Hygiene, Residue Monitoring and organisation of official controls in these areas.

"To start an evaluation on the present eligibility of Zimbabwe to export bovine meat to the EU, the competent Zimbabwean authority should submit a formal request to the Directorate General for Health and Consumer protection of the European Commission (DG SANCO).

"Based on the request, DG SANCO sends out a questionnaire to be completed by the competent national authority of the exporting country, which has also to submit a residue monitoring plan."

Aldo Dell'Ariccia said if the evaluation of the plan is positive, an inspection by the Food and Veterinary Office of the EC is carried out to assess the situation on the spot.

"Based on the results of the mission and the guarantees given by the exporting country, DG SANCO proposes i) the listing of the country;
ii) the specific conditions under which imports from that country will be authorised; and iii) the list of approved establishments in the country. As a final step, the European Commission will propose to the EU Member States to amend the legislation and add the exporting country the list of eligible exporters.

However, there has not been any official request from Zimbabwe to start this procedure," he said.

Beef Banned Europe

Source: Byo24News