Colombia prepares to launch bovine traceability system in the Caribbean

Colombia is set to launch its bovine traceability system, mandatory for accessing international markets with stringent health standards. The system will follow each cattle's history from birth to slaughter, using tags or microchips to record data such as origin, genealogy, and health history. This initiative aims to ensure food safety, control diseases, and provide consumer transparency. The pilot will start in a 'trade zone' including five departments and parts of three others, enabling exports to the US, provided the area does not experience a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. This system meets the US requirements for meat export, ensuring product quality and safety.

The national government is close to defining the start of the bovine traceability system, a fundamental requirement to access demanding international markets. It will begin with a pilot in the “trade zone”, which includes the departments of Atlántico, Córdoba, Magdalena, Sucre and parts of the departments of Antioquia, Bolívar and Chocó. Augusto Beltrán Segrera, technical secretary of the Price Stabilization Fund (FEP) of the Colombian Federation of Cattle Ranchers (Fedegán), explained that traceability is a mandatory requirement for all cattle and must be applied from birth to slaughter in slaughterhouses. “Traceability will be a mandatory process that each producer must initiate. They must identify their cattle from the moment of the animal's birth and throughout its life in its natural evolution until it is slaughtered at the slaughterhouse,” he said. Animal traceability is an identification and monitoring system that allows the history of each cattle to be recorded and ...