Latest EU Report Exposes Lack of Controls in Brazil

IFA President Francie Gorman said the latest audit published by the EU Commission into controls in Brazil highlights once again the absence of controls when it comes to the use of banned hormones.

The audit was carried out last October. It found that the action plan ‘has not been implemented as proposed’ to ensure that cattle treated with the banned substance oestradiol would not be exported into Europe, and this will ‘undermine the trust’ in the Brazilian competent authority to deliver on the standards required for export.

“This latest audit asks very serious questions about how the EU Commission oversees imports of Brazilian beef. We have been repeatedly assured that improvements were happening and that the controls are in place. In the ongoing debate about the Bord Bia Chair, some have argued that the necessary safeguards are in place, but clearly they are not. It should also be remembered that the Oct ’25 audit followed significant concerns raised 12 months earlier in another audit report,” he said.

The IFA President said IFA had sought the publication of this audit prior to the vote on the Mercosur trade deal last month, but it was not made available.

“Farmers will have no faith in either the EU Commission or the authorities in Brazil when they read the details of this latest audit. The failure to implement what the Commission refers to a ‘critical recommendation’ exposes the fundamental issue with imports of Brazilian beef. It confirms what IFA and the Farmers Journal found when we visited Brazil last October, where antibiotics were freely available for sale without any checks or traceability,” he said.

Francie Gorman said IFA will be following this up with the EU Commission. “We were given plenty of assurances in the run up to the Mercosur vote in the European Parliament in January to refer the deal to the ECJ, but they don’t stack up when put beside the latest audit findings.”