October 11, 2018

 
Philippines bans pork imports from Belgium

The Philippines announced on Tuesday, Oct.9, that it is banning pork imports from Belgium due to issues related to African swine fever.Belgium is one the Southeast Asian country's top suppliers of meat products.

 
Earlier the Philippines imposed the same blanket ban on pork imports from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Moldova, South Africa and Zambia, also due to ASF, as per report of the BusinessMirror.

 
The Department of Agriculture issued an order authorizing the blanket ban on the importation of pigs and their products from Belgium, including meat and semen, after Brussels confirmed the outbreak of ASF in the Luxembourg region of Belgium, which killed wild boars.

 
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol, however, said that frozen pork meats with slaughter/process date on or before August 25, 2018, are allowed to enter the country subject to veterinary quarantine rules and regulations.

Belgium, the Philippines' eighth top source of pork products, exported 15,103.634 tonnes of pork products to the Philippines last year, down 7.57% from the 16,340.017 tonnes in 2016.

 
Besides the Philippines, at least 12 other countries have banned Belgian pork and pork products due to ASF outbreaks. These are South Korea, China, Taiwan, Belarus, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, Serbia, Singapore, Uruguay, Australia and Malaysia.