{"id":605527,"date":"2025-12-01T15:39:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605527\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:39:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:39:16","slug":"npa-urges-government-to-ensure-import-controls-are-robust-after-spain-asf-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605527\/","title":{"rendered":"NPA urges government to ensure import controls are robust, after Spain ASF outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NPA has urged the government to ensure it does everything it can to protect the UK pig sector, after Spain confirmed its first case of African swine fever (ASF) since 1994.<\/p>\n

\"\"Following confirmation on Friday of cases in two wild boar<\/a> found dead approximately 1km apart, near the Autonomous University of Barcelona,\u00a0reports today suggest more suspected cases have been discovered near the Catalan city<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement, Defra has announced that all fresh pork and other affected products\u00a0from Spain will be held at Border Control Posts\u00a0until further notice, and that it will \u2018continue to monitor the situation and keep all measures under review\u2019.<\/p>\n

Spain is the world\u2019s second biggest pork exporter, with the 2.7m tonnes exported in 2024 valued at over \u20ac8.8bn, according to Interporc. In the first nine months of 2025, the UK imported 56,000t of pigmeat products from Spain, 11% up on 202.<\/p>\n

NPA reaction <\/strong><\/p>\n

NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: \u201cThe news from Spain is of real concern. Obviously, this could have a huge impact on Spanish pig producers, with a knock-on effect on the wider EU and UK pork sectors, if Spain faces significant restrictions on exports over a prolonged period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident also starkly highlights the huge threat posed by the ASF virus \u2013 and its continued ability to pop up anywhere at any time, in this case, as many times before, with humans undoubtedly playing a significant role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of concern over the government\u2019s handling of the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in Germany earlier this year as banned commercial products reportedly continued to enter the UK after the ban was imposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the government to ensure there is no repeat this time \u2013 and that its systems and communications are up to scratch, so that banned product from Spain cannot get past our borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also continue to call on the government to provide sufficient funding for port health authorities and Border Force<\/a> for the vital work they do in intercepting the huge volumes of illegal meat entering the country, particularly at Dover. These products often originate from ASF-infected parts of Europe, as criminal gangs target the UK because of its reputation for soft border controls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government, as various committees of MPs have stressed<\/a>, must weigh the relatively small resource required against the huge cost of a notifiable disease outbreak like ASF or FMD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge all parts of the pig sector \u2013 producers, processors, hauliers and the allied industries \u2013 to collectively ensure the strictest biosecurity standards are adhered to at all times. A UK outbreak of ASF is possible, but not inevitable if everybody plays their part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regionalisation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lizzie also highlighted the steps Spain has taken with trading partners, notably China, to ensure regionalisation agreements are in place to protect trade from outside infected areas in the event of an ASF outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have heard nothing official from the UK government about any attempt to forge vital regionalisation agreements. It is clear that there are huge benefits from having these in place before notifiable diseases strike \u2013 and we urge the UK government to be as proactive as possible in this area to help protect our vital export market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NPA has urged the government to ensure it does everything it can to protect the UK pig…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-605527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115645066501317474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}