UK keeps Brazilian meat imports despite EU antimicrobial concerns

The United Kingdom has decided to continue importing meat from Brazil from Sept. 3, diverging from the European Union, which is expected to suspend imports over concerns that Brazil’s controls on antimicrobial use in animal production do not meet the bloc’s standards.

According to a document reviewed by Valor, the International Meat Trade Association (IMTA) said that, following a meeting on Friday (17) with the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), it was informed that the British government will conduct its own assessment of Brazil’s antimicrobial control system, independently of the EU.

According to the IMTA, which represents British meat importers and exporters, the UK government will complete its evaluation of Brazil’s new antimicrobial control system—announced on July 1—by December. It will then decide whether the new rules provide sufficient traceability for antimicrobial drugs used in Brazil’s poultry and cattle supply chains. If UK authorities conclude that Brazil has failed to provide the required assurances, imports will be banned beginning in February 2027.

The United Kingdom—comprising England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales—officially left the European Union in 2020. However, there had been uncertainty over whether it would mirror the bloc’s approach because it is expected to implement a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU that will align regulatory requirements between the two markets.

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture had initially treated a UK ban as a certainty in its internal guidance for the inspection of international shipments. More recently, however, the ministry said the UK’s request for additional assurances does not currently impose any new restrictions or sanitary certification requirements on exports to that market.

Despite the UK’s independent position for now, restrictions on Brazilian meat beginning in September will apply to Northern Ireland. That is because Northern Ireland shares a land border with Ireland, an EU member state. In addition, starting in September, the UK will only export meat to the EU from animals originating in countries authorized to supply the bloc.

The IMTA document says Defra recognizes the challenge Brazil’s beef industry faces in complying with the antimicrobial control system introduced on July 1, given that cattle have a much longer production cycle than poultry. As a result, the department will assess the two supply chains separately.

Beginning next year, the UK is expected to align its antimicrobial control rules with those of the EU once the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement under negotiation with the bloc enters into force. Under those rules, British importers will only be allowed to purchase meat from countries included on the EU’s list of nations that comply with antimicrobial requirements.

The UK’s decision is expected to increase pressure from Brazil’s meat industry on the Ministry of Agriculture to intensify talks with European authorities, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Although the UK imports relatively small volumes of Brazilian beef compared with China and the United States, it is a high-value market. In the first half of the year, the average price paid by British buyers rose 24.2% year over year to $7,025 per tonne. Brazil exported 29,980 tonnes of beef to the UK in 2025. In the first half of 2026, exports totaled 12,470 metric tonnes, down 2.9% from the same period a year earlier.

On Friday, Agriculture Minister André de Paula welcomed the UK’s decision. “We received news that the United Kingdom will continue importing our beef regardless of any decision the European market may take. We will quickly resolve our issue with the European market,” he said after a ceremony in Argentina marking the receipt of the strategic antigen bank for emergency responses to foot-and-mouth disease.

Source: Valor International

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