MADRID, December 6 (EFECOM).- The Director General of the Association of Meat Industries of Spain (Anice), Giuseppe Aloisio, confirmed that there are now “much more” than 1,000 million euros per year at stake due to the ban on exports of pork products due to the emergence of African swine fever in Catalonia.
However, he considers it necessary to wait to get a “fixed picture” of the crisis – in a few weeks – to know in detail this economic impact on the export bill and on the development of prices, as he explained in an interview with Evegro.
Right now, he suggests the impact is greater than 1,000 million considering that the Japanese and Mexico lockdowns alone already add nearly 900 million annually.
But to this we must add the effect of withholding more than 130 certificates from about 40 countries, and add other provisions such as vetoing shipments to China from the affected region, in which there are “five large slaughterhouses that export large quantities.”
He realized that the ASF virus “is very complex, there is no vaccine” and “the first thing” third countries do “is to protect their own compartment” and close the borders.
This association trusts in the “diplomatic capacity” of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) so that third countries that do not accept the regionalization of the problem end up recognizing it.
Rather, it is about convincing them that these regional structuring protocols “provide security, are defined, and controlled, and that the rest can be considered safe outside the affected area.”
Spain exports to more than a hundred non-EU countries, so there are “many negotiations, standards, documents and clarifications” that these destinations can request from Spain.
However, Anis sends a “calming message to the operators” because the ministry is doing a “good job.”
On the other hand, he still has doubts about whether the national market will be able to absorb all the products that are no longer shipped and how that might affect the price: “We have to see how all the production will be reorganized a little bit. Making assumptions now is a bit risky.”
Aloysio believes it is appropriate to “allow a little time to see what the final picture looks like and then measure the economic impacts”; An image that “will not exist until the beginning of the year.”
For Anice’s Director General, the “good news, despite the bad”, is that the outbreak remains limited, and he also assessed the spread and the methods used to try to contain the outbreak.
Catalonia, according to Aloasio, is now going through a phase of “control and containment” of the virus, while the rest of the societies “have realized the danger of wild boar overpopulation and are activating all possible resources to try to contain or control it.”
He gives the example of Andalusia, a region that declared “a state of hunting emergency” years ago due to damage caused by wild pigs and feral pigs.
Aloysio, who three years ago was the council’s director-general of forest and biodiversity policy, said that after “confirming this overpopulation” in Andalusia, hunting of the species was allowed during the off-season.
Finally, he defends the entire pork sector because it is “perfect” in terms of the biosafety and prevention measures it implements, even though there is “no risk at all.” Aficom
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