According to Maggi, in order to increase its participation in the world market for agricultural products, Brazil needs to be more competitive. For this it is necessary to reduce bureaucracy, modernize and improve the efficiency of the public sector, which are the main objectives of Agro+. The private sector participated in drawing up the program.
The ambition is to raise Brazil’s share in the world market from present 6-7% to 10% in 5 years, adding more than US$30 bln to the Brazilian economy. For that also the number of countries where Brazil is present, now 42%, will have to increase. “We will become more agile and efficient”, says Maggi.
The implementation of the package, however, depends on presidential decrees, ordinances and normative instructions that have yet to be published in the “Official Gazette” of Brazil. Maggi states that “Brazil needs to open up to the world and needs to modernize. So we are launching this plan to get rid of rules and regulations that no longer serve.” According to him, the government needs to rely more on the private sector’s self-inspection practices. He also announced MAPA’s intention of re-allocating inspectors from where there is no need for permanent inspection (like dairy and vegetables) to more demanding areas, such as the meat industry.
The Agro+ plan has three goals: transparency and partnerships, improving the regulatory process and technical standards and facilitation of foreign trade. It presents 69 measures to be implemented within the coming 4 months.
Key measures of Agro+ are:
Immediate:
Transparency and partnership
- Launch of the animal product labeling system that will dispense the preliminary analysis by the agricultural inspectors of the ministry for an important part of the products.
- Agreement with CNA – Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (exchange of sanitary information, from 2 years to 3 months) and cooperation with several organizations which represent the industry (a.o. ABIEC, Viva Lacteos).
- Partnerships with organized civil society.
- Change of pork meat freezing temperature of -18º to -12º.
- Registration exemption for commercial establishments of generic veterinary products.
- Review of phytosanitary certification rules, participation of the private sector in certification (accredited agronomists working at companies).
- End of re-inspection in ports and shipments of export consignments arriving from of units which are under Federal Inspection.
- Accept digital reports also in Spanish and English.
- Allow the use of containers for storage of dairy products.
- Simplification of the procedure for international surveillance in ports and at airports, without compromising the quality and safety of the inspection.
- Update of the RIISPOA – Regulation of Industrial and Sanitary Inspection of Animal Products, of 1952.
The executive secretary of the ministry, Eumar Novacki says more than 13.000 laws that govern the legal framework of the ministry were identified and that this will be cleaned up, disposing of legislation that is not in accordance with the current reality.
Interim president Temer complimented the agricultural ministry with this initiative and said he hoped that more ministries would follow this example soon.