In his interview on CNBC’s Power Lunch earlier this week, the Minister of Agriculture, Senzeni Zokwana was right not to comment on rumours that a possible source of the listeria that has had such a catastrophic effect in South Africa may be from imported poultry products from Brazil unless, as he said an investigation proves this to be the case.
It would, however, be very useful to know the view of the Minister on the decision of the European Commission just last month to delist 20 Brazilian meat and poultry plants from the EU’s list of authorised suppliers stating that the measure relates to deficiencies in the Brazilian official control system. Is it possible that meat and poultry imports from these EU delisted plants are coming into South Africa?
