Spain is battling to keep its pork exports flowing after the country’s first outbreak of African swine fever in 30 years prompted several countries to limit purchases from Europe’s biggest pig meat producer.
One-third of Spanish pork export certificates remained blocked by foreign governments on Monday as Madrid grappled with the fallout from two confirmed swine fever cases in wild boars and eight suspected cases in the Barcelona region.
The nascent emergency in Spain, which exports nearly €9bn of pork meat and related products each year, comes as Italy recovers from a swine fever outbreak on 25 farms last year that led to the culling of 50,000 pigs.