Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 9) — The Department of Agriculture (DA) imposed on Tuesday an importation ban on poultry and related products, including wild birds, from Belgium and France following the outbreak of bird flu in Europe.
“We’re doing this to protect the health of our local poultry population as well as poultry workers and consumers since H5N1 is a virus that can be transmitted to humans by infected animals,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement.
The DA said France and Belgium reported the bird flu outbreak over a month ago to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
“The indefinite import bans also prevent traders from bringing in Belgian and French poultry products including poultry meat, day-old chicks, hatching eggs, and poultry semen into the Philippines starting Jan. 8, 2024,” Laurel added.
It clarified that meat imports already in transit, loaded, or accepted before the ban would still be allowed as long as the products were produced on or before Nov. 12, 2023, in the case of France, and Nov. 16, 2023, for Belgium.
Based on the 2022 total importation report of the DA, the country’s importation of poultry meat was up by 1.57% compared with 2021, with 411,070 metric tons valued at US$468,455,990. The DA said 2.60% of the total import arrivals were from Belgium while no records of imports were logged from France.
Last year, poultry meat importation was 3.78% higher than in 2022. The DA noted that France and Belgium accounted for 0.01% and 0.59%, respectively, of total imports.
