Zimbabwe has shelved plans to resume beef exports to the European Union due to the stringent requirements, Veterinary Services Department Director Stuart Hargreaves said. The E.U. banned beef imports from Zimbabwe in 2001 following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in some parts of the country. He said other markets in Asia with less stringent conditions were being sought.
Hargreaves said the conditions the EU was insisting should be met before resumption of trade were too cumbersome and required huge financial investments which the country could not afford. "The major reason is that the E.U. is insisting that all cattle in the country should be identified to the farm and dipping tank of origin through either ear-tagging or branding." He said although the country wanted to resume the exports, it could not afford to purchase ear tags for all the cattle as well as put up fences in some areas that the government had resettled people.
Other E.U. demands include zoning the country to prevent movement of cattle, erecting fences around national parks to prevent cattle from getting into contact with buffalo, which are believed to carry the foot-and-mouth virus; as well as vaccinating cattle against the disease.
In 2006 inspectors from the E.U. visited the country to assess compliance with the standards ahead of resumption of trade. Zimbabwe enjoyed an annual beef quota of 9 100 tonnes to the E.U. before the 2001 ban.
In an effort to comply with the E.U. demands, fences had been erected around two of the largest national parks and cattle in those areas had been vaccinated. The country had also been divided into zones and laws prohibiting free movement of cattle without authority from the Veterinary Department had been passed, with the police mounting monitoring roadblocks on all sensitive roads throughout the year. In addition, vaccines against foot-and-mouth had been imported from Botswana.
Hargreaves said samples had been sent to Hong Kong and Malaysia in an effort to develop beef markets there.
To ease your site search, article categories are at bottom of page.
