February 23, 2009

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) pledged Friday (Feb 20) to seek to negotiate with Singapore for resumption of pork exports, which were suspended in the wake of the latest foot-and-mouth (FMD) outbreak in the country.

Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) announced Thursday (Feb 19) its decision to suspend the import of pork and pork products from Taiwan due to the reported cases of FMD infections in two hog farms in the central Taiwanese counties of Yunlin and Changhua earlier this month.

COA's vice-minister Wang Cheng-teng confirmed that Taiwan had informed the Singaporean authorities of the FMD outbreak and that pork exporters had also taken the initiative to withhold exports to Singapore.

Singapore last banned Taiwanese pork imports in 1997 following a previous FMD outbreak and only lifted the ban in 2007.

According to AVA statistics, Singapore imported 999 tonnes of pork and pork products from Taiwan in 2008, which accounted for less than 1 percent of Singapore's pork and pork product market.

However, COA's figures showed that Singapore is an important market for Taiwan's farmers as more than half of the annual export of around 1,400 tonnes of fresh or frozen pork goes to the island state in recent years.

Before the 1997 outbreak of FMD -- a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects cloven-hoofed animals -- Taiwan raised as many as 12 million hogs yearly, with 7 million being exported to Japan, according to the COA.

Taiwan now raises about 6.4 million hogs a year which is mainly for domestic consumption.

The latest FMD outbreak occurred just as Taiwan was working to be listed as a fully FMD-free country. World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has recognized Taiwan as an "FMD-free country with vaccination" due to its efforts to eliminate the disease over the past decade.

OIE regulations state that a country is entitled to apply for FMD-free status if there are no fresh FMD cases being reported within one year after suspension of anti-FMD vaccination.

The COA initially planned to file such an application in May next year but it now will have to be deferred for at least 18 months.