TOKYO: French foie gras producers could be facing a lean Christmas after eight countries including Japan, the largest importer of the controversial delicacy, banned imports following a bird flu outbreak in the Dordogne.
The European Commission confirmed last month that birds at three poultry farms in the Dordogne were infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first outbreak in eight years to hit the EU’s biggest agricultural producer.
China, South Korea, Thailand, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia have banned French poultry imports and several other countries are considering doing so, according to Loïc Evain of the French agriculture ministry.
“Unfortunately some countries’ first reaction is to close their borders and only then to discuss strategy,” he added.
Jean-Michel Schaeffer, head of the French Poultry Confederation, said the bans were “unjust and annoying” but exports amounted to only six per cent of total sales of French poultry products, worth about €500 million (£361 million) a year.
But the bans have been imposed at a crucial time of year. Last year France exported 4,934 tonnes of foie gras, earning more than €86 million (£62.1 million), mainly from sales to Japan and South Korea.
A Japanese agriculture ministry official said all imports of French poultry and live birds were banned but poultry products made before October 23, when the first case of bird flu was detected, can still be brought into the country. Marie-Pierre Pé of the French Foie Gras Producers’ Confederation said Japan had agreed to the cut-off date after negotiations with French officials.
Bernard Anquetil, a French foie gras importer in Japan, said: “It’s a bit of a catastrophe. We can still use frozen foie gras but there are many people who prefer it fresh, especially during the holidays.”
However, the Japanese official played down the damage to French producers: “As far as we know, a large part of the foie gras that will be consumed over Christmas has already been imported. We think this ban will therefore have little impact on the Japanese market.”
No EU member-states have announced bans, apparently satisfied that containment procedures implemented by French authorities under World Health Organisation guidelines are sufficient to prevent the spread of the disease. Some 30 per cent of French poultry exports go to Saudi Arabia, which has also refrained from introducing a ban.
Containment and protection measures are in force within a six-mile radius of the three farms affected near the village of Biras, between Périgueux and Brantôme.
Entire flocks have been culled. About 1,000 geese and 14,000 ducks were electrocuted earlier this week in special trucks so the dead birds can be removed with minimum contamination. The farms are still being disinfected.
The French agriculture ministry issued a statement stressing that bird flu could not be transmitted to people “through the consumption of meat, eggs, foie gras, or any other food product.”
The last bird flu scare in France was in 2006 and 2007, when the H5N1 virus was discovered in poultry in the east of the country. Bird flu has killed 449 people and infected 844 people, most of them in Vietnam, Indonesia and Egypt, according to the World Health Organisation. Almost all are known to have been in direct contact with infected poultry.
The Japanese authorities expect the ban to last several months. “We would lift the import ban 90 days after the affected farms finish culling their birds and go through full disinfection,” the agriculture ministry official said.
France, by far the biggest consumer of foie gras, produces 75 per cent of the world’s foie gras from the livers of duck and geese fattened by force-feeding. The practice has led many consumers and shops in Britain to shun foie gras over concerns about animal welfare as the liver is enlarged to 10 times its natural size.
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