LONDON, Oct 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The government is under pressure to stop illegal meat being smuggled into the UK, amid warnings of a “foot-and-mouth” level crisis for British farmers.
The amount of meat seized by Border Force officials has doubled in a year, according to data which suggested more meat is entering the country in fewer vehicles, which experts say indicates a rise in organised crime.
Meat imports classed as illegal have often not gone through checks to confirm they are disease-free and conform to UK health standards.
An outbreak of the highly contagious African swine fever has been spreading across Europe’s pig herds since last summer.
Farmers and MPs have called on the chancellor to fund more stringent border controls in next week’s Budget to prevent the disease from entering the UK.
The President of the National Farmers’ Union, Tom Bradshaw, said that he was not confident the government would introduce the measures he believed were necessary.
Bradshaw said African swine fever “could spread very rapidly through our pig herd and have huge, huge implications”.
The large rise in illegal meat is likely to be down to more stringent restrictions around the import of pork products, an overall increase in the price of meat and more organised criminal activity.
It is understood that red meat makes up the majority of the seizures, but the exact breakdown of beef, pork and lamb is not known.
African swine fever leads to very high death rates among infected pigs and currently has no effective treatment or vaccine.
The National Audit Office estimated that the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak cost the UK economy £8bn, equivalent to around £14.5bn today.
Home Office figures showed the amount of illegal meat seized by Border Force officials doubled from almost 35,000kg in 2022/23 to more than 70,000kg in 2023/24.
Figures for the first four months of 2024/25 suggest another large increase will be recorded by the end of the financial year.
It’s understood the actual amount caught is likely to be much higher, as the Border Force figures won’t include some seizures recorded by individual port health authorities around the UK.
The rise in seizures is not believed to be down to increased success at intercepting illegal imports.
Additionally, the data shows a general trend towards fewer individual seizures, with more than 5,500 in 2015/16 and fewer than 2,000 in 2023/24, sparking fears of larger shipments and more organised criminal activity.
Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are understood to have held at least two meetings with representatives from the farming sector in recent weeks to discuss this issue.
A new system of post-Brexit border checks at Dover came into effect in April of this year, but critics have said they leave open the possibility of more illegal meat entering the UK.
Instead of checks taking place at Dover itself, vehicles are ordered to drive 22 miles away to a border control post at Sevington.
The government announced £3.5bn of funding for Dover in August, but no additional money for smaller ports has been confirmed.
A government spokesperson said that there had never been an outbreak of African Swine Fever in the UK, and it was determined to ensure that remained the case.
“Strict import controls” were in place to manage risk, they said, including restrictions on personal pork imports introduced last month. — NNN-AGENCIES
