Brazilian Beef Export: Traceability as a Production Chain Management Tool

Abstract

This study aimed at searching the Brazilian beef
production chain actors perception about SISBOV and the
consequences that traceability system has brought to the
Brazilian beef producers exporting to the EU. For that purpose it
was used the Collective Subject Discourse qualiquantitative
methodology, tool that allows making it known the collective
opinion about a specific subject. The survey was based upon a
sample of thirty-four persons, both genders, most of them with a
high level of education, belonging to five different categories of
actors related to the cattle production in Brazil: farmers,
slaughterhouses, certifying companies, class associations and
governmental regulatory organizations. Results have shown that
SISBOV is perceived as a feasible traceability system for
wealthier farmers dealing with exports, considering the critical
costs for certifying the farms without revenue guarantee, due to
the slaughterhouses monopoly power. As an advantage, SISBOV
is perceived as a better way of managing the farms, promoting
the cattle sanitary quality. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out
that the traceability exigencies from several countries put
together tarifary barriers that contradict the free trade
approach, also taking into account the lower disease prevalence
in extensive cattle growing as it is observed in Brazil.