Bureaucratic overkill needlessly disrupted pork markets

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Over-the-top import bans in Asia after African swine fever was detected in the carcass of a wild boar in Germany have needlessly disrupted international trade.

Can doing things the correct and honest way be taken too far? One can no longer be so sure the answer is no, after last week’s announcement by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Germany that the decomposed carcass of an infected female wild boar found near the border with Poland had tested positive for African swine fever (ASF).

Within days, the country’s pork exporters were cut off from their markets in China, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Singapore.