LONDON — Meat imports worth at least £1 million are stranded at the U.K. border following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Germany.
The British government on Tuesday moved to ban the import of cattle, pigs and sheep from the country — including meat products and dairy — to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease. It has also banned individuals traveling to the U.K. from importing these products.
But the new restrictions have come at a huge cost for the U.K.’s food and drink industry, with the situation on the ground described as “hugely disruptive.”
Rod Addy, director general of industry group the Provision Trade Federation (PTF), said his members’ loads have already been held at departure points on the continent or at points of entry in the U.K. in the wake of the import ban.
“In many cases, these loads consist of products with short shelf lives, which started losing retail value as soon as the hold-ups began,” he said. “In total, these imports could easily surpass £1 million in costs and value for the industry.”
Chaos at the border
Dozens of vehicles and their drivers have been held for up to 24 hours at southern ports in the U.K., warned Liam Challenger at the Cold Chain Federation, which represents businesses running temperature-controlled vehicles and storage facilities.
In a memo seen by POLITICO and shared with industry, the U.K.’s agriculture department (DEFRA) said port health authorities and local authorities would support businesses to return goods to Germany which are currently being held at the border.
These products can be returned to Germany “on a voluntary basis subject to agreement by the veterinary authorities in the EU,” the guidance said.
But Challenger warned the guidance from ministers was unclear. “The advice from the government is so open that there are no practicalities in actually delivering it,” he said.
“One member, for example, has got 30 or so drivers at [the border control post] Sevington waiting to turn around but can’t get the certification that lets them do that,” Challenger added. “They’ve managed to get one sorted but still 30 to go. The government implied that drivers should be able to do a U-turn and go home but it’s not as easy as that.”
“Then, on the flipside, you’ve also got products that were delivered earlier in the week or last week which are now in storage and they are unsure about what to do next because it’s unclear from government advice who is responsible,” he said.
Traumatic memories
The German outbreak will bring back traumatic memories for the U.K. farming industry, which was devastated by an outbreak of the disease in 2001, with over 2,000 farms affected and more than 6 million animals slaughtered, costing the government billions.
While the disease does not pose any risk to humans, it is highly contagious among cattle, sheep, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals, with symptoms including sores and blisters on the feet, mouth and tongue.
Nan Jones, technical policy manager at the British Meat Processors’ Association (BMPA), said she had also heard reports of meat being held up at the border.
“But I think there is more of a concern around foot-and-mouth disease entering the country and the action being taken there,” she added. “This is a fast moving disease, therefore once it has entered [the U.K., it] is extremely hard to control.”
Germany is currently the third-largest exporter of pig meat to the U.K., with an 18 percent market share. Between January and October 2024, the U.K. imported 117,340 tonnes of pig meat worth £448 million, the latest figures from the U.K.’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board show.
In the same period, the U.K. imported 6,796 tonnes of beef worth £23.2 million; 85 tonnes of sheep meat worth £963,000; and 130,000 tonnes of dairy worth £283 million.
While the U.K. ban applies to the whole of Germany, EU countries have taken a more nuanced approach. This is because, under EU regionalization rules — which the U.K. is no longer subject to since Brexit — some regions of Germany can still be classed as disease-free.
German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir said on Monday the government was “in contact with our trading partners on this and are committed to limiting the closures, taking safe processing methods into account and the regionalization principle.”
In another post-Brexit twist, the outright ban will not apply to Northern Ireland, which has no hard border with EU member the Republic of Ireland.
UK ‘should go further’
Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner said “the government will do whatever it takes to protect our nation’s farmers from the risk posed by foot and mouth.”
“That is why restrictions have immediately been brought in on animal products from Germany to prevent an outbreak and we will not hesitate to add additional countries to the list if the disease spreads,” he said in a statement.
While Jones of the British Meat Processors’ Association welcomed the ban on commercial and personal imports of meat and dairy to the U.K., she argued that the government should be doing more to prevent a U.K. outbreak.
“We feel it should go further and there should be a ban on these products across the EU as it is very difficult to monitor,” she said, in reference to the personal import ban.
In addition to an outright ban on personal meat imports from the EU, BMPA is calling for disinfectant mats to be installed at the U.K. border as well as better signage to educate travelers about the risks.
Jones warned that a fresh outbreak of the disease in the U.K. would be “devastating” for meat exports, causing “huge reputational damage” to the industry.
Paula Andrés Richart contributed to this report.
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