The president of the Brazilian Association of Producers and Exporters of Pork (ABIPECS), Pedro de Camargo Neto, congratulated the ministry and said that the step corrects irregularities that were totally at odds with international trade rules supported by the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and which have caused serious damage to pig farming in Brazil since October 2005.

"We congratulate the MAP Minister Wagner Rossi, Secretary of International Relations, Celio Porto, and the director of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Issues, Otavio Cançado, for the reopening of the South African market," said Camargo Neto.

South Africa banned imports of beef and pork from the whole of Brazil in 2005 because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in cattle in Mato Grosso do Sul.

"The measure should have lasted and could have been tolerated for a few weeks. Never for almost six years," said the president of ABIPECS.

After the FMD outbreak in 2005, MAP immediately restricted the movement of animals, preventing the disease from spreading across the Country.

In the case of pigs, Pedro de Camargo Neto said, there was the aggravating factor that the state Santa Catarina is free of FMD without vaccination and should not have had its exports restricted.

South Africa allowed imports of beef from Brazil in 2009, but maintained the ban on pork.

ABIPECS said that it is essential that all paperwork necessary for the immediate resumption of shipments of pork to South Africa is completed immediately.

"The crisis facing the industry demands it," said Pedro de Camargo Neto.