THE Department of Agriculture (DA) on Wednesday formally banned all meat products from Germany—second top source of Philippine meat imports—after the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) discovered a major breach of quarantine protocol for African swine fever (ASF).
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol issued a memorandum order authorizing the suspension of the system of accreditation of German foreign meat establishments to ship meat products to the Philippines. The order takes effect immediately.
Piñol said BAI’s investigation found that the confiscated meat shipments from Germany last June 27 in Cebu contained 250 kilograms of pork from Poland, a country struck by ASF. Poland was banned from exporting meat to the Philippines due to the outbreak of the fatal pig disease.
“The German company, ProFood, admitted that it imported pork from Poland and part of the importation was shipped to the Philippines,” Piñol said in a Facebook post Wednesday evening.
“BAI Director Dr. Ronnie Domingo said this was a serious violation which warranted the banning of all pork shipments from Germany,” he added.
All German meat shipments in transit would still be allowed to enter the country but would be subjected to mandatory inspection.
The order also directs the BAI to suspend the processing and issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance for meat imports from Germany effective on July 1.
“There have been lapses in the inspection system of Germany to ensure the export of safe food for the Philippine market. There is a need to prevent the entry of ASF virus to protect the health of the local swine industry,” Piñol said in the order.
“The temporary suspension is for the protection of Philippine consumers pursuant to the Food Safety Act,” he added.
Germany is now the 19th country to be disallowed from shipping meat products to the Philippines as Manila intensifies its quarantine measures against ASF, which could wipe out the P200-billion local hog industry.
The Philippines purchased over 88 million kilograms of meat from Germany last year, making it the second top source of meat imports, BAI data showed.