Brazil is the world’s largest red meat and poultry exporter, but it is losing customers in a scandal over allegations that meatpackers have sold unsafe products for years, said the BBC. Four markets — China, the EU, South Korea and Chile — that account for nearly one-third of meat exports “have now announced restrictions on Brazilian meat.”
President Michel Temer “invited foreign diplomats to a steak house” over the weekend in trying to contain the fallout from an investigation that concluded in police raids at the end of last week.” It found evidence that meatpackers had been selling “rotten and substandard produce for several years,” said the BBC. Three packing plants were closed and an additional 21 were under investigation.
Investigators “accuse more than 30 companies of a number of unhygienic practices. Among them are JBS, the world’s largest beef exporter, and BRF, the world’s top poultry producer,” said the BBC.