Fallout from a meatpacking industry scandal in Brazil, widened on Monday as China, the EU, South Korea and Chile curtailed meat imports.
Fallout from a meatpacking industry scandal in Brazil , the world’s biggest exporter of beef and poultry, widened on Monday as China , the EU, South Korea and Chile curtailed meat imports from the country after inspectors were accused of taking bribes to allow sales of tainted food.
With other import curbs expected to follow, the scandal stemming from a Brazilian police operation codenamed “Weak Flesh” could deal a heavy blow to one of the few sectors of Latin America’s largest economy that has thrived during a two-year recession.
The police investigation of Brazil’s meatpacking industry is the latest to cast a spotlight on unsavory business practices in the country. Brazil is still reeling from massive graft scandals involving state-controlled oil company Petrobras and construction and engineering firm Odebrecht.
Police on Friday named BRF and JBS , along with dozens of smaller rivals, in a two-year probe into how meatpackers allegedly paid off inspectors and politicians to overlook practices including processing rotten meat and shipping exports with traces of salmonella.
JBS is the world’s largest meat producer and BRF the biggest poultry exporter.
The companies have denied any wrongdoing, and authorities have said no cases of death or illness have been linked to the tainted meat investigation.
Brazil’s President Michel Temer has sought to downplay the scandal, saying it involved only 21 of Brazil’s more than 4,800 meat processing units. But Francisco Turra, head of Brazilian beef producers association ABPA, told reporters it had put the entire meat industry in jeopardy and “destroyed” a hard-won image of quality products.
