Germany’s farming and food industry is likely to have lost about €1 billion ($1 billion) of business following an outbreak of the livestock illness foot-and-mouth disease, the head of the farming cooperatives association told German media.
Germany announced its first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years on 10 January in a herd of water buffalo on the outskirts of Berlin in the Brandenburg region.
Measures to contain the highly infectious disease, which poses no danger to humans, often involve bans on imports of meat and dairy products from affected countries, with Britain, South Korea and Mexico among states imposing import bans on Germany this week.
“Along the value-added chain, we believe that a sales loss of more than €1 billion exists,” Joerg Migende, head of the association of German farm cooperatives DRV, told German television programme ARD-Hauptstadtstudio.
He said the economic damage from foot-and-mouth to Germany looked like being “immense”.
UK Imports
Between January and October 2024, the UK imported German pig meat worth £448 million ($545 million), Britain's Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board said this week. Dairy imports during the same period were valued at £283 million.
German authorities continued to test animals in the quarantine zone in the Brandenburg region on Thursday (16 January) with test results still awaited.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said the Commission was in constant contact with the German authorities and Germany’s efforts to stop the disease spreading would enable the regionalisation principle to be used.
Under this EU rule, sales of meat and dairy products are only restricted from the region where the disease has been confirmed and produce from elsewhere in the affected country can still be sold inside the EU.
France Steps Up Checks
France has reinforced checks for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and issued alerts to veterinarians after an outbreak of the highly contagious virus was detected in cattle in Germany, prompting trade bans from several countries.
France is trying to protect itself from the virus as it grapples with other animal diseases, including bird flu and bluetongue, that caused severe damage to its livestock sector.
'The Ministry is on alert on this subject. Our departments are closely monitoring developments in Germany. To date, we have drastically stepped up controls and investigations in the animal sectors concerned,' the French agriculture ministry said.
