December 15, 2020

Germany in discussions with China over relaxing pork import bans

Germany's Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture said the government is currently in intensive discussions with China about relaxing German pork imports, which China imposed after Germany detected African swine fever (ASF) this autumn, Reuters reported.

Germany's Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture said the government is continuing talks to establish a regionalization agreement on pork imports. This means the pork import ban will only cover areas where ASF was discovered, instead of a blanket ban on the entire Germany.

In addition to China, Japan and South Korea also banned German pork imports after Germany confirmed its first ASF case detected in a dead wild boar on September 10. This resulted in surging Chinese pork prices, while German pork prices crashed.

There are 240 ASF cases in Germany, all among wild boar with farm livestock unaffected.

The ministry said it had sent its answers to China's questions about Germany's measures to prevent from ASF from spreading in the country, to stop new infections, and to assure early ASF detection in wild animals or in possible farm cases. The ministry said China has not replied.

- Reuters