German pork exports threatened after ASF case confirmed

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Published: September 17, 2020

BERLIN (Reuters) — German agriculture minister Julia Kloeckner has confirmed a case of African swine fever in a wild boar in the eastern state of Brandenburg near the country’s border with Poland.

Kloeckner said tests were conducted at Germany’s animal health institute. Efforts are underway to prevent the disease from spreading, she added.

The discovery of the confirmed case risks hammering exports from Europe’s largest hog-producing nation as Germany struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.

South Korea moved last week to ban pork imports from Germany after word of the African swine fever case. The ban, South Korean officials said, will apply to pork leaving Germany from Sept. 10 onward, while pork already en route from Germany will be subject to African swine fever checks upon arrival.

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Germany had feared a spread of the disease after cases were confirmed in wild boars in western Poland in past months with one Polish case found only about 10 km from the German border. Cases have also been recently confirmed in about 10 other European countries in wild boars, which are suspected to be spreading the disease.

ASF is not dangerous to humans but fatal to pigs. Some countries impose import bans from regions where it has been discovered in non-farm wild boars.

Millions of pigs have died or been culled because of the outbreak in China and other Asian countries. The disease has slashed China’s pig herd by half since 2018.

There have been fears in Germany that its major exports of pork to China and other Asian regions could be threatened if the disease arrives in the country.

Asian countries including China regularly impose import bans on pork from regions where ASF has been discovered, causing painful loss of business for meat exporters.

Germany exported 158,000 tonnes of pork to China between January and April, double the tonnage in the same time in 2019, Germany’s national statistics office said.

Sales were ironically fuelled by China’s increased import demand because the disease has devastated pig herds.

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