Cattle in the Dominican Republic will now be traced through a national database that will track breeding and health records.
The traceability program, launched by the Ministry of Agriculture last week, hopes to bring Dominican cattle health and monitoring protocols up to international standards.
Agriculture Minister Angel Estevez said that the country wants to become one of the largest exporters of meat and dairy in the world.
The Ministry’s message is that the initiative, part of an ‘irreversible global trend of recording information’, will benefit all stakeholders in the meat value chain.
Summarizing benefits for cattlemen: “[The initiative] benefits producers because it enables consumers to obtain timely information about the source of meat. This traceability translates into greater confidence and food safety for consumers,” the government said in a statement.
The statement added: “From the business perspective, traceability also allows producers to maintain eligibility in current exports target markets and gain access to new markets.
“The new system will allow livestock producers to improve breeding stock, while reducing the smuggling and theft of livestock.”
http://www.thecattlesite.com/news/46272/official-cattle-traceability-scheme-started-in-dominican-republic