China bans importation of German pork

China has banned pork imports from Germany after it confirmed its first case of African swine fever last week.

The ban on Germany was announced on September 12, 2020.

German exports to China are worth around 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) annually, and volumes had doubled in the first four months of this year on soaring demand after Chinese output shrank around 20%.

A spokeswoman for the German Food and Agriculture Ministry confirmed the ban and stated that “the ministry remained in talks with the Chinese government on the matter.”

German farmers on Friday urged China to avoid a nationwide ban on imports of their pork, and the agriculture ministry said ”It had asked Beijing to apply a regional approach to the swine fever case.”

However, the ban announced by China’s customs agency and its agriculture ministry had been widely anticipated given Beijing’s history of moving quickly to implement bans in such cases.