Dover authorities seize 6t of illegal meat in 14 hours

The National Pig Association (NPA) is stepping up calls for proper funding and enhanced inspections at the Port of Dover, following further discoveries of illegal meat entering the country.

During the weekend of 6 and 7 December alone, more than 6t of illegal meat was seized by Dover Port Health Authority during a 14-hour period.

The haul included three consignments of pork from Romania – a country badly affected by African swine fever (ASF) – smuggled in without paperwork or any temperature controls.

See also: Defra confirms funding withdrawal for Dover illegal meat checks

Another consignment of “rest of the world” poultrymeat was seized, again without paperwork, found in unrefrigerated cardboard boxes.

The latest findings take the amount of meat intercepted by DPHA to 147t since the introduction of new ASF controls limiting personal imports to 2kg per person in September 2022.

Around 90t has been seized in the past 12 months alone.

But given the budgetary pressures on port inspectors after a 70% funding cut by Defra, staff are only providing 20% operational coverage at the Port of Dover, suggesting the latest finds are “just the tip of the iceberg”.

‘Huge threat’

NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “ASF poses a huge threat to our domestic pig sector and the fact there is so much illegal product, much of it from parts of Europe with serious ASF problems, is a massive concern.

“We would like to put on record our thanks to DPHA for their phenomenal work in extremely tough conditions, with a limited budget and stretched resources.

“But we know so much more is getting through our ports than is being intercepted, and we urge the government to rapidly come up with the funding they need before it is too late.”

Commercial routes

The NPA is also concerned that, as well as non-commercial routes into the UK, illegal meat will also be finding its way along the commercial route.

Senior policy adviser Tom Haynes points to the automatic clearance mechanism designed to prevent a build-up of traffic at the Sevington inland border control post, which he says provides criminals with another low-risk means of shipping in meat.

“We are extremely concerned that vulnerabilities in the Border Target Operating Model are now being exploited by criminal importers, with increasing quantities of illegal meat now entering the UK through the commercial route, in addition to the personal imports route,” he said.