Brazil Ambassador to Indonesia Paulo Alberto Da Silveira Soares urged the country to take a new approach to his country’s products: “If you could, you should adopt a zone-based approach (instead of a country-based approach). Many regions in Brazil are free of the disease completely.”
According to its official statistics, Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter, with exports reaching US$3.2bn last year.
Apart from wanting to export beef to Indonesia, Soares said, a group of major Brazilian firms in the beef industry were keen to invest in Indonesia. The group, along with other firms in various sectors, would explore business opportunities in Indonesia during the two-day ASEAN-Latin America Business Forum, set to take place on 9-10 July in Jakarta, he added.
At present, Brazilian beef exporters cannot sell products to Indonesia because of a ban on beef imports from countries where several diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease, are found.
