Dear readers,
After the shocking announcement of the reemergence of African Swine Fever(ASF) in Spain, some good news from the swine industry:
- The Minister of Agriculture of the Catalan regional government announced that Argentina, Chile and the Philippines will accept regionalization for pork exports, joining other destinations such as the United Kingdom, which have already announced their agreement.
- Spain is resuming most of its pork exports to China after a brief interruption following last week’s discovery of ASF in wild boars in Barcelona province. The export resumption is based on an agreement signed during Spanish King Felipe VI’s state visit to China in mid-November, more than half of Spanish export certificates for pork products are still valid.
- The Catalan government will activate a package of economic measures for those potentially affected by ASF : a €10 million line of credit, expandable by another €10 million, will be opened to address the economic consequences of this situation. Meanwhile, the €50 million line of credit that the Catalan Forestry Institute has made available to the sector, which is already open, has not yet received any applications.
- German Meat Advisory Board Chairman Jan-Bernd Stärk was part of Federal Minister Alois Rainer’s delegation to the USA. It is important to mention that Mr. Alois Rainer is a trained butcher, coming from the meat business. He is the first German Minister of Agriculture since 2015 to visit the US, the focus was on two topics in particular: the lifting of the FMD block, and the approval of pork exports from Germany to the USA.
Events calendar:
- Food Africa is the premier trade exhibition for the food and beverage industry across the African continent and the Middle East. Held at the Egypt International Exhibition Center in Cairo, Egypt, the fair takes place on 4 days from Tuesday, 09.12.2025 to Friday, 12.12.2025.
- SIAL India is a leading international trade fair for food and beverages, held annually at the Yashobhoomi India International Convention & Exhibition Centre in New Delhi. The SIAL will take place on 3 days from Thursday, 11. December to Saturday, 13. December 2025.
- GrowTech(GTE) Vietnam is the leading international trade fair for agricultural machinery, equipment, and cutting-edge technologies, held at the Hanoi International Exhibition Center. GTE will take place on 3 days from Wednesday, 10. December to Friday, 12. December 2025.
- Le Porc Show, organized by the Quebec Association of Animal Nutrition and Cereal Industries, Quebec Pork Producers and Quebec slaughterhouses, brings together all partners in the pork industry to discuss the major issues and challenges of the sector between 9-10 of December, at Quebec Congress Center, Canada.
Boomerang
The European Commission has recalled consignments of frozen Brazilian beef products imported into the EU, after it was found they contained hormones banned in shipments that arrived into Europe in November. EU countries impacted by the situation include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and Slovakia. This finding may prolong the moment of full acceptance of the MERCOSUR agreement regarding meat entering the EU market.
The ASF virus strain in Barcelona has been identified as belonging to the new genetic group 29. It is very similar to the virus of genetic group 1, which circulated in Georgia in 2007. Clear differences have been found between this strain and the viruses currently circulating in EU member states, which belong to genetic groups 2 to 28. The source of contamination es even harder to be determined now!
Meanwhile, 30,000 pigs located on 39 farms within the 20-km surveillance perimeter of the ASF outbreak control zone will be slaughtered next week, according to sources from Catalan agricultural and livestock organizations following a meeting with the Catalan government.
Let’s go back in recent history: 10 September 2020, the first case of ASF in Germany. Samples were taken from bones of the almost completely decomposed carcass of a wild boar. Export restrictions for the German pork followed, Germany has lost his place as European pig production leader and Spain took over the leadership and most of the markets. In order to remind the situation in that time, I included in this report some market data related to market prices as of 6 of December, 2021, you will find them on the last page. That time the solution came from the lifting of the COVID restrictions and the start of the Ukrainian war.
Now Spain is facing an ASF crisis, due to the discovery of the disease in wild boar carcasses. This is like a boomerang…
