The self-regulation law, approved two years ago, faces slow regulation, affecting its effectiveness and increasing the responsibility of the production chain.
Nearly two years after its approval, the self-regulation law has seen few advances in its regulation. The law aims to assign greater responsibility to the production chain, which will have to improve its control, traceability, and guarantees to adequately prove the quality, safety, identity, and harmlessness of its products. It seeks to increase the state’s control capacity without burdening it with the allocation of personnel for fixed and “non-strategic” inspections. However, the lack of regulations so far compromises the full implementation of the law.
So far, the practical effects of the new law have been limited to extending the defense deadlines in administrative agricultural inspection processes from 10 to 20 days, allowing second-instance processes to be referred to the third instance with appeals or requests for TAC – Term of Adjustment of Conduct, and standardizing the sanctions provided in the various legislations related to Agricultural Defense. However, the very procedure of the Administrative Agricultural Inspection Process is still pending full regulation.
For the law to be fully enforced, a long path still lies ahead, as the Ministry of Agriculture must resolve the regulation of 18 different production chains, as well as other issues such as the Regularity Incentive Program, VigiFronteiras, and the effective implementation of the Administrative Agricultural Inspection Process. Many consultations were made by the Ministry, with numerous proposals considering the positions of the public sector, private sector, and entities defending diffuse interests (Environment, Public Health, Consumer, among others).
What is at stake is the safety and efficiency of the 18 production chains under the umbrella of the Agricultural Defense Secretariat of the MAPA – Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, because without effective regulation of the various inherent aspects, the law will never achieve the desired and effective implementation.
One example of this growth is the animal protein chain. The Agribusiness Projections Study, Brazil 2022/2023 to 2032/2033, published by the Agricultural Policy Secretariat of MAPA and Embrapa – Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, shows that the production of beef, pork, and chicken in Brazil will increase by 22.4% in 10 years. Annual production is expected to rise from the current 29.6 million tons to 36.2 million by 2033. This reality applies to many other chains such as dairy, leather, fish, etc.
Effects of self-regulation
It is clear that there will still be much discussion around the self-regulation law, but its impact on private agents will depend on the chain they belong to and the size of the company. Large producers are focused on international regulations; they are already prepared for whatever comes from the Federal Government. Small and medium producers, depending on the production chain they belong to, will face proportionally higher initial costs in time and resources to adapt to the new model.
