NPA members are being urged to write to their MP in a call for action on African swine fever (ASF) prevention and border controls, amid ongoing concerns over Defra funding cuts for the Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA).
The NPA fears that Defra’s decision to cut funding for illegal meat checks and seizures at the port could leave the UK pig sector dangerously exposed to an outbreak of ASF.
Defra told DPHA in December that it was cutting its budget from £3.2m to £1.2m in 2024/25, starting in April, and then to nothing in 2025/26. The council says it needs £4m to perform the work, which has also been extended to Coquelles on the other side of the Channel, further stretching resources.
A template letter to an MP has been circulated to NPA members and is available in the Members’ Area of its website. It highlights how, since Defra introduced new rules in September 2022 making it illegal to bring pork and pork products over 2kg into GB, unless produced to the EU’s commercial standards, the DPHA and Border Force have seized more than 75 tonnes of illegally imported meat.
The vast majority of this is pork and is arriving from countries where ASF is present, and therefore poses a significant risk to the health of our national pig herd.
The letter warns MPs that the 70% reduction in funding from this month ‘will lead to even more illegal imports passing into the country undetected, ultimately, increasing the threat of ASF’.
It highlights the ‘catastrophic impact’ on the pig sector if ASF was allowed to reach the UK, including the culling of thousands of pigs, a total standstill on animal movements and ultimately the loss of farming businesses and potentially the entire sector forever.
The letter asks MPs to urge the Government to overturn the planned funding cuts and increase resource to Border Force to ensure checks are fully implemented and actually enhanced where possible.
It also requests that they ask the Government to remove the current 2kg limit on non-commercial meat products in place of a blanket ban, as this would be far easier for tourists and travellers to understand and for government to implement and enforce.
“As a sector, we are doing everything within our power to protect our animals and prepare our businesses, but this is all just a futile effort if our borders are permitted to remain so vulnerable to illegally imported meat; the most significant risk in the spread of ASF,” the letter states.
“Therefore, I urge government to take this threat seriously and I thank you in advance in conveying this important message to the Defra Ministerial and Home Office teams.”
NPA chairman Rob Mutimer said: “ASF is the greatest risk we face as a pig sector and we need to do all we can to protect our pig herd from it. We would, therefore, encourage all members to contact their MPs on this extremely important subject.”
Critical letter
Defra Secretary Steve Barclay struggled to explain the Department’s stance on funding checks for illegal meat imports when he appeared in front of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee last week.
Prior to the meeting, EFRA published a letter to it from Lucy Manzano, head of Dover port health & public protection, which criticised the Department on a number of the points it made in its response to questions from EFRA on the subject.
She wrote: “I am disappointed to observe that the letter to you (from Defra) does not answer the questions asked, contains many points of inaccuracy, and includes statements that are both confused and misleading as to the current position at the frontline and the position as planned by Defra post April 2024.”
Labour MP Barry Gardiner told Mr Barclay during the hearing that it was ‘one of the most excoriating letters I’ve ever seen in relation to what a minister has said and put in writing’.