Defra has announced new measures, effective from tomorrow, intended to clamp down on personal pork imports into the UK, in order to protect the national pig herd from African swine fever (ASF).
However, while the NPA has welcomed Defra’s efforts to tighten up the rules, it said the measures do not go as far as it would have liked and could be very difficult to enforce.
To safeguard the UK’s pig and farming industries, Defra has announced that personal imports of pork and pork products from the EEA (European Economic Area), the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Switzerland will be banned from tomorrow Friday, September 27, unless these products are manufactured and packaged to EU commercial standards and weigh less than a maximum of 2kg.
Previous measures introduced in September 2022 banned the import of pork and pork products not produced to EU commercial standards that weighed more than 2kg. But they still allowed individuals to bring in up to 2kg of pork products that did not need to meet any EU commercial standards.
These new rules go further, banning all pork and pork products that that cannot be visibly shown to be produced to EU commercial standards. They also limit imports that are produced to these standards to 2kg.
Those found to bring pork or pork products illegally may be fined up to £5,000 in England. Products will be seized and destroyed on arrival.
Dover Port Health Authority has reported seizing around 100 tonnes of illegal pork and pork products since the ASF safeguard was introduced in Sept 2022, although this is widely considered to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Biosecurity Minister Baroness Hayman said: “African swine fever is a deadly disease wreaking havoc in Europe. These new measures will protect British pig farmers and pork products, preventing infected meat from being brought over the border and threatening our biosecurity.”
NPA reaction
NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “We welcome Defra’s recognition of the threat African swine fever poses to the UK pork sector and its efforts to tighten up the rules on bringing personal imports into the UK.
“Removing the allowance for imports of up to 2kg of pork products not produced to commercial standards is a step forward. Introducing an additional 2kg limit for pork that has been produced to commercial standards is also an improvement, as no limit existed previously.
“However, we called for a total ban on personal imports to make the rules easier to understand and enforce, so we would have liked to have seen today’s announcement go further.
“We are concerned that, as drafted, there will still be some confusion over exactly what the rules require and they will still be very difficult to enforce.
“We also have to stress that these changes do not address the real issue of concern, which is the vast quantities of illegally imported pork entering the country in vans and other vehicles by via organised criminals.
“The previous government slashed funding for the work of the Dover Port Health Authority in carrying out these ASF checks and we continue to call on the current government to provide sufficient resource for this work.”
In the NPA’s submission to the Treasury ahead of the Autumn Budget, we urge the government to prioritise the UK’s biosecurity and provide additional resource to Dover Port Health Authority, reversing the previous government’s cuts, to help them expand their current inspection regime.
Protect UK livestock
Defra said it was investing £3.1 million to Dover Port Health Authority for 2024/25 to help Border Force tackle illegal meat imports and keep ASF out of Great Britain.
The department said the new safeguarding rules will help protect UK livestock by mitigating its spread across the border to the UK, estimating that an outbreak of ASF could cost the UK between £10 million to £100 million and have a significant impact on the UK’s £8 billion pig industry, as well as its annual pork and pork product exports worth £600 million.
It said preventing an outbreak of ASF in the UK remains one of Defra’s key biosecurity priorities, and that it keeps policy on personal meat and dairy imports under constant review, as well as working closely with devolved governments on contingency planning and preventing an incursion from infected goods.
A number of other countries, including Australia, Japan, the EU, New Zealand and the US, already do not permit personal imports of pork and pork products.