Berlin is urging Manila to immediately lift its import ban on German meat after the European state imposed preventive measures to avoid comingling of shipments to the Philippines in the future.
In his letter to Agriculture Assistant Secretary Enrico P. Garzon Jr., Germany’s Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Dietrich Rassow detailed Berlin’s interventions following the comingling incident of Polish pork with legitimate German meat imports last month.
In his letter, Rassow said the mixing of 26 boxes of Polish pig meat (flatbones) with German meat shipments bound for Philippines was caused by a human error.
Polish pork has been banned from entering the country to prevent intrusion of the African swine fever virus (ASF) since Poland has been struck by the deadly hog disease.
Rassow explained that the Polish pork meat were mistakenly loaded into the German shipment bound for Philippines and were not discovered due to indistinguishable packaging.
Meat shipments are prepared in pallets which are covered in opaque foil before being loaded in containers, he added.
“Because of a human error in the company, the respective 26 boxes of Polish pig meat [flatbones] were incorrectly loaded onto the cutting fat pallets the day before, which was not visible from the outside,” Rassow said in his letter dated July 23, a copy of which was obtained by the BusinessMirror.
The human error made by Pro Food GmbH’s (ProFood) employees led to the suspension of the system accreditation of all Germany-based foreign meat establishments (FMEs) to export meat to the Philippines last month.
Preventive measures
Rassow said Germany and the company had undertaken preventive measures to avoid repeating the breach of protocol in the future.
Among these measures is the installation of a bar-code system wherein every package unit would be stamped with a bar code that would be scanned prior to loading into pallets.
“The bar-code scanner will display an error message when an incorrect article has been scanned and an acoustic will be emitted as well,” Rassow said.
Rassow added that they would also replace that opaque foil covers of the pallets with transparent ones for easier human monitoring. Additional cameras would also be installed.
Germany has also ordered “an intensified surveillance of the loading of pig meat intended for export” at ProFood.
Germany would now also certify through the veterinary certificates that their meat exports to the Philippines are sourced from countries that are approved for export.
The veterinary certificates would now contain the following label: The meat exclusively comes from countries that are approved for export to the Republic of the Philippines.
Due to these “comprehensive” measures, Rassow asked the Department of Agriculture (DA) to lift the import ban on Germany.
“In particular, I would like to kindly request that you immediately lift the import ban on products such as poultry meat, since this ban does not constitute a protective measure against African swine fever infections,” he said.
Sought for comment, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), an attached agency of DA, said the accreditation review board (ARB) would still review Germany’s measures before making a decision on the import ban. If Germany wants to regain its export accreditation and resume trade with Manila, BAI OIC-Director Ronnie Domingo said it has to prove that it has improved its quarantine system.
“German authorities should be able to convince the Philippine authorities that they have effective measures in place to avoid repeating the same problem,” he told the BusinessMirror via SMS last month.
In a verbal note sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Manila said it is open to meet with DA officials to discuss and resolve the issue immediately.
“The embassy offers its availability for a meeting with the Department of Agriculture regarding this matter if the need arises,” the document read.
The Philippines purchased over 88 million kilograms of meat products from Germany last year, making it the second-biggest source of imported meat, BAI data showed.