Brazilian meat association launches campaign to warn against illegal meat exporters

In partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (APEX-Brasil), ABPA (the Brazilian association of animal protein) has launched an international information campaign to alert importers and potential customers against cases of fraud and false sales which are impacting exports of Brazilian poultry and swine.

The campaign will feature videos in Portuguese, English, and Mandarin that encourage importers and customers to be careful to check the alleged seller before payments are made. Among the measures being taken is the checking of data with ABPA and diplomatic posts abroad.

The campaign will be promoted through social networks, through direct channels with stakeholders from strategic markets for Brazilian exports, and by Brazilian embassies around the world, with the support of the Agribusiness Promotion Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Fraud involves cloning websites of exporting companies, providing sales slips for fake sales, falsifying product labels that were not produced in Brazil, using fake SIF’s, cloning e-mails, creating fully structured ghost offices (with bank accounts), etc. In order to inhibit criminal practices, exporting agro-industries have already structured exclusive internal compliance areas to deal with fraud.

According to ABPA estimates, there have been 1,000 cases of fraud in the past five years.

Argentina has suspended 15 exporting companies for circumventing the sanitary-control system.

In the meat market, the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries suspended 15 companies in the country for exporting meat without using the Single Registry of Operators in the Agroindustrial Chain (RUCA). The government mechanism attests to sanitary, tax, and exchange control. The names of the companies were not disclosed. In the action, 40 tons of frozen meat destined for export were refused and seized. After a series of investigations by different control bodies in Argentina, it was possible to discover the illegal operations that “were dedicated to the export of meat and grains, circumventing government controls and configuring unfair competition with the rest of the operators, in addition to having a negative financial impact”.

After the blockade, companies will be investigated by the Federal Administration of Public Revenue (Afip), the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), and the Customs and Financial Information Unit (FIU), in addition to the Justice Department.

With information from Valor Econômico

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