Cecília Jorge
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - The 2nd International Conference on Tracking Agricultural Products intends to define common standards for keeping tabs on agricultural products. The event, which runs through Wednesday (12), in Brasília, has attracted producers, technicians, researchers, and government administrators from 27 countries.

Tracking combines a set of practices making it possible to accompany and register the entire production process of food items from the field to the supermarket. Tracking is already used in Brazil in the case of meat and fruit for export. In the cattle-raising sector, for example, one of every four animals is registered with the Brazilian System of Identification of Bovine and Bubaline Origin (SISBOV).

At the opening of the event, today (10), the Brazilian minister of Agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, said that the goal is to improve food quality, ensuring better health for all consumers. "We must look at the whole world with product quality in mind, in order for public health to be of the best possible quality," he argued.

Rodrigues pointed out that Brazil can still augment its production capacity, since the country possesses 106 million hectares of arable land that is not utilized. But since there is a limit to the amount of land that can be added, Rodrigues affirmed that production improvements, such as extending the use of tracking, are important to guarantee the food supply.

Translation: David Silberstein

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